6(04- 
U-7U.5 

i 


University  of  California. 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


(JONATHAN     T.    IJpDEGRAFF, 

(A   REPRESENTATIVE   FJIDil  OHIO) 


DKUVI'.KKll    IN     IIIK 


HOUSE  (IF  REPRESENTATIVES  AND  IS  THE  SENATE, 
U  •  €.'. 

FORTY-SKVEXTH    CONGRESS,    SECOND    SESSION 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  COMiRKSS. 


WASHINGTON: 

(ION  Kit  N  ME  NT     PRINTING    OFFICE. 

1883. 

0171 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  to  provide  for  the  publication  of  the  memorial  addresses  delivered 
in  Congress  upon  the  late  Jonathan  T.  Updegraff. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  be  printed  twelve  thousand  copies 
of  the  memorial  addresses  delivered  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa 
tives  upon  the  life  and  character  of  Hon.  Jonathan  T.  Updegraft',  late  a 
Representative  from  the  State  of  Ohio,  together  with  a  portrait  of  the  de 
ceased  ;  nine  thousand  copies  thereof  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  and  three  thousand  copies  for  the  use  of  the  Senate.  And  a  sum 
sufficient  to  defray  the  expense  of  preparing  and  printing  the  portrait  of  the 
deceased  for  the  publication  herein  provided  for  is  hereby  appropriated  out 
of  any  moneys  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Approved  February  23,  1883. 


f/TT 


ADDEESSES 

ON  THE 

DEATH  OF  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF. 

PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  HOUSE. 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

December  4,  1882. 

Mr.  HERBERT.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  rise  to  announce  that  since  the 
adjournment  of  this  House  in  August  my  colleague,  Hon.  WILLIAM 
M.  LOWE,  died  at  his  residence  in  Huntsville,  Alabama;  and  mak 
ing  to-day  simply  this  sad  announcement  that  he  has  gone  from 
among  us  forever,  I  give  notice  that  on  some  future  occasion  a 
motion  will  be  made  to  fix  a  day  upon  which  this  House  shall  pay 
appropriate  honors  to  his  memory. 

I  now  yield  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  who  has  a  similar  an 
nouncement  to  make. 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

December  4,  1882. 

Mr.  EZRA  B.  TAYLOR.  Mr:  Speaker,  with  feelings  of  the  deepest 
personal  sorrow  I  have  to  announce  the  death  of  my  honorable  col 
league,  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  late  a  member  of  this  House 
from  the  State  of  Ohio.  The  experience  of  Mr.  UPDEGRAFF  in 
this  Hall,  his  fidelity  to  the  public  service,  his  integrity,  and  his 
ability  cause  his  loss  to  be  deplored  by  this  body  and  by  the  coun 
try.  His  private  character  and  social  qualities  give  to  his  death 
ground  for  peculiar  grief  to  those  who  knew  him  best. 

I  ask  the  action  of  the  House  on  the  following  resolution. 

a 


4  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  has  heard  with  sincere  regret  the  announcement 
of  the  death  during  the  late  recess  of  Hon.  WILLIAM  M.  LOWE,  late  a  Repre 
sentative  from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  of  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
a  Representative  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Resolved,  That  the  Clerk  communicate  the  foregoing  resolution  to  the  Sen 
ate. 

Sesoltedj  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  deceased  the  House  do  now  ad 
journ. 

The  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted ;  and  accordingly  the 
House  adjourned. 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

January  20,  1883. 

Mr.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR  I  ask  unanimous  consent  that  Tues 
day,  February  6,  at  2  o'clock  p.  m.,  be  fixed  as  the  time  for  the 
consideration  of  suitable  resolutions  of  respect,  and  for  paying-  ap 
propriate  tributes  to  the  memory  of  my  deceased  predecessor,  the 
Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF. 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

February  6,  1883. 

Mr.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR.  The  hour  assigned  for  exercises  dedi 
cated  to  the  memory  of  the  late  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF 
has  now  arrived,  and  I  am  directed  by  my  colleagues  to  present  for 
the  consideration  of  the  House,  the  resolutions  which  I  send  to  the 
desk  to  be  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  TLat  the  House  of  Representatives  has  received  with  profound 
sorrow  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  J.  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  late  a  Rep 
resentative  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Resolved,  That  the  business  of  the  House  be  now  suspended  that  suitable 
honors  may  be  paid  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  the  Clerk  of  the  House  do  communicate  these  resolutions  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  further  mark  of  respect  the  House,  at  the  conclusion  of 
these  memorial  exercises,  shall  adjourn. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR,  OF  OHIO. 


Address  of  Mr.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  dark  .shadow  of  death  ha*  fallen  heavily 
upon  the  Forty-seventh  Congress.  Xine  times  has  the  sable  mes 
senger  glided  across  the  floor  of  this  House,  bearing  from  the  busy 
scenes  of  its  activity  Fernando  Wood,  of  New  York  ;  Michael  P. 
O'Connor,  of  South  Carolina  ;  James  Q.  Smith  and  William  M. 
Lowe,  of  Alabama;  Robert  M.  A.  Hawk,  of  Illinois;  Thomas 
Allen,  of  Missouri ;  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  of  Ohio,  Godlove 
S.  Orth,  of  Indiana  ;  and  John  W.  Shackelford,  of  North  Caro 
lina.  And  they  passed  away  in  the  order  in  which  I  have  named 
them. 

Mr.  Smith,  of  Alabama,  whom  the  House,  July  20,  1882,  ad 
judged  elected  to  represent  the  fourth  district  of  Alabama,  died 
in  this  city  pending  the  contest  of  his  election,  and  before  the  de 
cision  of  the  House  in  his  favor. 

To  this  list  of  mortality  must  be  added  Senator  Burnside,  of 
Rhode  Island ;  Senator  Carpenter,  of  Wisconsin ;  and  Senator 
Hill,  of  Georgia. 

Ohio  has  been  singularly  fortunate  during  the  eighty  years  of 
her  history  as  a  State.  In  this  long  period  but  seven  of  her  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  including  both  Houses,  have  fallen  at  their  posts 
of  duty: 

In  1821,  Senator  Trimble;  in  1844,  Representatives  Brinker- 
hoff  and  Moore;  in  1850,  Representative  Wood  ;  in  1867,  Repre 
sentative  Hamilton;  in  1870,  Representative  Hoag  ;  and  in  1882, 
Representative  UPDEGRAFF. 

We  are  here  to-day  to  pay  tributes  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
my  honored  predecessor,  the  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
and  the  delicate  and  responsible  duty  of  opening  the  remarks  of 
this  occasion  has  been  assigned  to  me  by  my  colleagues. 

On  the  oOthday  of  November  last,  when  the  flowers  of  summer 
had  faded  and  when  the  leaves  of  autumn  had  fallen,  there  came  to 
the  home  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF,  in  the  picturesque  village  of  Mount 


6  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

Pleasant,  Ohio,  a  messenger  which  no  human  power  can  turn  away. 
On  that  day  of  national  thanksgiving,  when  family  greetings  and 
domestic  joys  were  filling  other  homes  and  other  hearts,  the  dark 
ness  and  desolation  of  death  settled  upon  the  home  and  hearth 
stone  of  that  once  happy  family.  The  silver  cord  was  loosed,  the 
golden  bowl  was  broken,  and  the  husband,  father,  neighbor,  states 
man,  friend,  closed  his  eyes  forever  upon  the  scene  of  his  earthly 
struggles  and  triumphs  and  was  numbered  with  the  dead.  I  do 
not  rise  here  to  indulge  in  any  fulsome  adulation  of  our  deceased 
brother.  No  meed  of  eulogistic  praise  can  add  to  the  measure  of 
a  life  rounded  up,  completed,  the  volume  ended,  the  record  closed, 
and  sealed  with  the  clasp  of  death.  I  may  but  bring  my  tribute 
of  memory  to  cast  with  yours  at  the  dead  feet  of  one  whose  famil 
iar  form  we  shall  see  no  more  until  we  too  shall  pass — 

At  God's  commandment  through  the  shadowy  gates, 
To  reach  the  sunlight  of  the  eternal  hills. 

The  observance  of  ceremonies  of  this  kind  is  not  a  recent  cus 
tom.  The  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  were  wont  to  gather  about 
their  fallen  heroes  and  recount  their  virtues  and  the  trophies  they 
had  won.  Memorials  in  brass  and  marble,  in  undying  verse  and 
imperishable  utteranc.es,  have  comedown  through  all  ages  to  inspire 
the  ambition  of  youth  and  stir  the  pulses  of  manhood.  More 
than  three  thousand  years  ago  a  monument  was  erected  by  divine 
direction,  on  the  shores  of  the  Jordan,  of  stone  taken  from  the- bed 
of  the  river  where  the  feet  of  the  priests  had  stood,  which  should 
be  for  a  memorial  unto  Israel  forever.  And,  sir,  it  is  fitting  that 
we  should  pause  a  brief  moment,  amid  the  absorbing  cares  of  daily 
life,  and  mark  the  foot-prints  of  those  who  have  attained  a  worthy 
prominence  among  men  ;  and  while  we  weave  a  garland  of  flowers 
to  deck  the  grave  of  our  friend  who  has  gone  from  among  us,  we 
should  take  note  of  those  circumstances  which  press  upon  us  the 
lesson  of  our  own  mortality  and  the  claims  of  our  spiritual  nature. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  born  in  York,  now  called  Updegraff,  in 
Jefferson  County,  Ohio ;  was  the  son  of  David  Updegraff,  a  min 
ister  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  a  grandson  of  Nathan  Upde- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  JOSEPH  D.   TAYLOR,  OF  OHIO.  7 

graft',  one  of  the  framers  of  the  first  constitution  of  Ohio.  His 
father  moved  to  Ohio  about  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
and  of  his  eight  children  two  only  survive — David  B.  Updegraff, 
an  eminent  minister  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  who  resides  in 
Mount  Pleasant  and  is  the  owner  of  a  farm  about  a  mile  distant, 
where  the  Updegraff'  family  have  their  bury  ing-ground,  and  Mrs. 
Sarah  Jenkins,  who  is  a  lady  of  culture  and  a  prominent  member  of 
the  same  society.  The  devoted  wife,  whose  kindly  presence  is  well 
known  in  Washington  circles,  still  resides  with  her  two  little  boys 
at  the  family  homestead  in  Mount  Pleasant.  Of  his  other  chil 
dren  three  survive  him — two  sons  and  a  daughter,  the  eldest  being 
Judge  R.  D.  Updegraff,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Dr.  UPDEGKAFF'S  boyhood  was  spent  on  his  father's  farm  until 
his  nineteenth  year.  He  was  educated  in  the  common  schools  and 
in  Franklin  College,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  respectable  insti 
tutions  of  learning  in  Ohio.  Having  chosen  medicine  as  his  pro 
fession,  he  entered  the  office  of  Dr.  Flanner,  of  Mount  Pleasant, 
completed  his  course  of  studies,  and  graduated  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania. 

He  began  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-one,  and  soon  became  an  eminent  and  successful  physician, 
adding  much  to  his  reputation  and  usefulness  by  completing  his 
studies,  in  1851  and  1852,  in  the  medical  schools  of  Edinburgh  and 
Paris.  Toward  the  close  of  the  war,  following  still  in  the  line  of 
his  profession,  he  served  as  a  surgeon  in  the  Union  Army. 

In  1872  he  was  Presidential  elector  in  the  electoral  college  which 
gave  the  vote  of  Ohio  to  General  Grant.  In  1872  and  1873  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Ohio  State  senate.  In  1873  he  was  tempo 
rary  president  of  the  Republican  State  convention  of  Ohio.  In 
1875  he  was  chairman  of  the  State  Republican  central  committee. 
In  1876  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  national  Republican  convention 
at  Ciucinnati  which  nominated  President  Hayes.  And  in  1878  he 
received  the  Republican  nomination  for  Representative  to  the 
Forty-sixth  Congress  and  was  triumphantly  elected.  He  was  re- 
nominated  and  re-elected  two  years  later  to  the  present  Congress, 
and  in  October  last,  only  a  few  weeks  prior  to  his  decease,  he  was 


8  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

re-elected  to  the  Forty-eighth  Congress.  But  Death,  the  inexor 
able  destroyer,  cut  him  down  in  the  midst  of  his  public  career  and 
in  the  zenith  of  his  usefulness. 

His  record  in  this  House  I  shall  leave  for  those  who  were  asso 
ciated  with  him  here,  and  who  can  speak  from  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  his  career  since  he  became  a  member  of  Congress. 
His  speeches  upon  education,  temperance,  agriculture,  and  the  tariff, 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  country,  and  greatly  added  to  his 
popularity.  His  decision  of  character  and  unconquerable  will 
made  him  a  tower  of  strength  in  anything  he  undertook.  When 
he  once  resolved  to  do  a  thing  no  power  on  earth  could  deter  him. 
Opposition  and  obstacles  which  would  induce  most  men  to  abandon 
an  undertaking  seemed  only  to  inspire  him  with  increased  vigor. 
And  hence  it  is  no  wonder  that  his  ambitions  were  always  gratified 
and  his  successes  always  assured.  He  was  a  man  of  great  indus 
try  and  wonderful  tenacity  of  purpose. 

His  scholarly  attainments,  his  extensive  reading  and  travel,  had 
given  him  breadth  of  thought ;  and  his  contact  with  men  had  added 
a  knowledge  of  human  nature  that  aided  his  judgment  and  made 
him  quick  to  grasp  an  idea  and  carry  it  out  to  its  logical  sequence. 

From  an  honored  and  liberty-loving  ancestry  he  inherited  an 
uncompromising  hatred  of  oppression  in  every  form,  and  through 
all  his  life,  public  and  private,  he  cherished  a  regard  for  the  poor 
and  the  down-trodden,  and  whenever  and  wherever  they  needed  a 
champion  he  was  ready  in  their  defense. 

He  was  active  in  the  organization  of  the  Republican  party,  and 
was  its  firm  and  faithful  adherent  through  all  his  public  life.  In 
his  own  and  in  other  States  he  gave  much  time  to  the  discus 
sion  of  its  principles.  Among  his  most  prominent  characteris 
tics  was  his  faithful  allegiance  to  his  friends,  and  especially  to  those 
whom  he  had  known  in  his  earlier  years.  And  it  may  be  men 
tioned  here,  a»  one  of  the  commendable  features  of  human  nature, 
that  the  friends  of  his  youth,  and  those  for  whom  he  had  been  per 
mitted,  in  the  exercise  of  his  large  opportunity,  to  do  acts  of  public 
and  private  favor,  remained  his  firm  and  steadfast  friends  through 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR,  OF  OHIO.  9 

all  the  vicissitudes  of  political  life,  and  stand  to-day  a  sorrowing 
multitude  around  his  fresh-rnade  grave.  And  if  there  are  those 
among  his  constituency  who  feel  that  their  personal  desires  wrere 
overlooked,  they  should  remember  that  it  was  because  it  was  im 
possible  for  him  to  meet  all  the  demands  that  wrere  made  upon  him, 
and  not  because  of  any  indifference  or  neglect  upon  his  part. 

With  his  strong  and  aggressive  nature  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
friction  of  political  life  should  provoke  some  resentments,  but  in 
the  hottest  contest  he  was  frank  and  open  in  his  opposition,  and 
never  descended  to  that  vindictive  calumny  so  often  resorted  to  by 
those  who  manage  the  political  campaigns  incident  to  a  Republic 
like  ours. 

If  he  had  faults — and  who  has  not? — let  him  who  is  without 
any  cast  the  first  stone.  There  has  never  been  but  one  perfect  life 
lived  on  earth,  and  faults  and  frailties  are  the  common  heritage  of 
humanity.  "  But  the  grave  covers  every  defect,  extinguishes 
every  resentment ;  from  its  peaceful  bosom  come  only  fond  regrets 
and  tender  recollections." 

If  we  err,  in  human  blindness, 

And  forget  that  we  are  dust; 
If  we  miss  the  law  of  kindness 

When  we  struggle  to  he  just, 
Snowy  wings  of  peace  shall  cover 

All  the  pain  that  hides  away, 
We  shall  know  each  other  better 

When  the  mists  have  cleared  away. 

To  the  farmers  of  Eastern  Ohio  his  death  comes  with  a  sense 
of  personal  loss.  He  was  long  identified  with  that  class  of  nature's 
noblemen,  the  honest  labor  of  whose  hands  is  hallowed  bv  the 
sacred  promise  of  the  God  of  Harvests,  whose  long  line  of  descent 
runs  back  through  the  circling  ages  to  the  days  of  the  patriarchs, 
and  who  stand  to-day  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our 
land,  on  hillside  and  prairie,  in  sloping  valley  and  blooming 
meadow,  the  coadjutors  of  a  benign  Providence,  making  the  solitary 
places  glad  and  "  the  desert  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose." 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  not  a  man  to  be  lightly  forgotten.  His 
was  not  a  negative  nature,  to  sink  into  oblivion  when  the  grave 


10        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

closes  over  it.  His  positive  qualities  stamped  themselves  too  legi 
bly  upon  the  events  of  his  time  to  be  lost  sight  of  or  ignored  ;  but 
in  the  sacred  precincts  of  his  home,  among  the  loving  circle  of 
kindred  and  friends,  will  the  finer  qualities  of  his  character  find 
their  most  fragrant  immortality.  For  nearly  two  years  he  suf 
fered  from  the  malady  which  resulted  in  his  death,  but  he  was  uni 
formly  cheerful  and  bright,  and  bore  his  sufferings,  which  were  at 
times  intense,  with  remarkable  patience.  No  gloomy  shadows 
hovered  about  his  sick  chamber.  During  the  six  weeks  of  his  con 
finement  to  his  room  he  arranged  his  business,  received  his  friends, 
and  as  the  scenes  of  earth  receded,  he  grasped  with  a  firmer  hold 
and  a  more  triumphant  faith  the  enduring  realities  of  the  life  to 
come. 

He  was  reared  in  the  peace-loving  principles  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  that  noble  denomination  of  Christians,  who  for  more  than 
two  hundred  years  have  kept  the  simple  tenor  of  their  quiet  way 
in  the  midst  of  the  rushing  din  of  the  world's  clashing  conflicts,  un 
daunted  by  persecution,  unspoiled  by  flattery,  bearing  with  meek 
ness  alike  the  fury  of  fanatical  hate  and  the  seductiveness  of  worldly 
favor. 

In  his  last  illness  he  gave  much  time  and  thought  to  the  life  that 
is  beyond.  He  talked  frequently  of  death  and  invited  his  Chris 
tian  friends  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  pray  with  him.  He  realized 
better  than  his  friends  that  his  work  was  done  and  that  the  end  was 
drawing  nigh.  A  few  days  before  his  death  the  people  of  his  dis 
trict  were  cheered  by  hopeful  words  from  his  family  and  physicians, 
and  many  thought  that  he  would  certainly  recover,  but  his  strength 
was  too  nearly  exhausted,  and  the  vital  currents  of  life  ran  too  low 
to  be  permanently  rallied.  While  he  had  himself  the  gravest  ap 
prehensions  of  the  result,  he  was  anxious  that  nothing  should  be 
left  undone  that  might  afford  a  hope  of  benefiting  him,  yielding 
only  when  the  inevitable  was  upon  him. 

For  who,  to  dumb  forgetfulness  a  prey, 

This  pleasing,  anxious  being  e'er  resigned- 
Left  the  warm  precincts  of  the  cheerful  day, 
Nor  cast  one  longing,  lingering  look  behind  ? 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  JOSEPH  D.  TAYLOR,  OF  OHIO.  11 

Though  clinging  to  life  with  all  the  vigor  of  a  strong  and  suc 
cessful  man's  interest  in  its  activities,  he  yet  faced  death  with  a  spirit 
of  calm  submission,  and  breathed  his  last  in  the  assured  faith  of 
immortality, 

His  funeral  was  one  of  the  largest  and  most  impressive  gather 
ings  that  has  been  known  in  that  part  of  the  State.  A  solemnity 
brooded  over  the  village  of  Mount  Pleasant,  a  hush  as  of  the  still 
ness  of  death.  Emblems  of  mourning  floated  from  every  dwelling, 
places  of  business  were  closed,  flags  draped  in  black  swayed  in  the 
chill  air,  and  every  face  was  tearful  and  sorrowing.  Slowly  the 
long  procession,  headed  by  the  Congressional  escort,  moved  out 
from  the  home  he  had  loved,  bearing  the  inanimate  form  of  him 
who  should  return  to  it  no  more.  Upward  of  two  thousand  people 
gathered  in  the  spacious  Friends'  meeting-house  to  take  a  last  look 
at  the  features,  lately  so  familiar,  now  stamped  with  the  mysterious 
nobility  of  death.  The  beautiful  burial  casket  bore  upon  its  silver 
plate  the  words :  "  Dr.  J.  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  died  November  30, 1 882, 
aged  60  years." 

Appropriate  addresses  were  made,  and  he  was  laid  away  to  rest 
in  the  burial-place  of  his  fathers  and  close  beside  the  play-ground 
of  his  boyhood. 

There  the  flowers  of  spring  will  bloom  in  beauty  above  his 
sleeping  dust.  There  the  snows  of  winter  will  weave  about  his 
lowly  bed  a  covering  of  spotless  purity.  The  years  will  come  and 
go;  other  feet  will  press  the  sod  of  his  familiar  home;  time  and 
change  will  write  their  inevitable  legend  upon  all  nature ;  the  earth 
itself  will  shrivel  and  decay  and  the  heavens  be  rolled  together  as 
a  scroll,  but  his  immortal  spirit  will  live  when  the  universe  shall 
be  no  more  and  when  time  itself  is  a  forgotten  thing. 

The  sun  is  but  a  spark  of  fire, 

A  transient  meteor  in  the  sky — 
The  Soul,  immortal  as  its  Sire, 

Shall  never  die! 


12         LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.    UPDEGRAFF. 


Address  of  Mr.  ATHERTON,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  On  the  30th  day  of  November,  1882,  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  responding  to  Executive  proclamation,  were 
rendering  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  for  the 
bounties  and  blessings  of  a  most  fruitful  and  prosperous  year. 

In  terrible  contrast  to  the  general  rejoicing  on  that  very  day  our 
brother  whose  life  and  virtues  we  pause  to  commemorate  on  lay  a 
bed  of  suffering  and  death. 

His  well-beloved  family  surrounded  him  with  loving  but  suffer 
ing  hearts  and  fain  would  have  snatched  him  from  the  grim  mon 
ster,  but  all  human  aid  and  sympathy  were  powerless  and  unavail 
ing,  and  in  the  early  evening  of  that  day  he  was  released  from  his 
suffering  and  slept  the  quiet  sleep  of  death. 

The  sad  news  flashed  over  the  wires  while  many  of  us  were  on 
our  way  to  the  national  capital. 

Pursuant  to  the  request  of  the  Speaker  of  this  House,  and 
prompted  by  an  earnest  desire  to  pay  a  last  tribute  of  respect  to  all 
that  remained  of  our  distinguished  brother,  I  formed  one  of  the 
number  composing  the  Congressional  delegation  who  attended  his 
obsequies. 

Leaving  Washington  and  passing  the  grand  scenery  of  the  Bal 
timore  and  Ohio  Railroad  we  in  due  time  arrived  at  Wheeling. 

We  there  took  carriages  and  crossing  the  Ohio  River  we  ascended 
the  glorious  hills  of  my  own  native  State.  Arriving  at  the  sum 
mit  a  scene  of  beauty  was  spread  out  before  us  in  magnificent  pan 
orama. 

On  one  side  the  Ohio  River  wound  through  the  valley  like  "  a 
ribbon  of  silver,"  and  away  beyond  us  were  high  hills  and  deep 
valleys  decked  with  large  and  beautiful  farm-houses  and  covered  with 
the  richest  products  of  agricultural  wealth. 

The  whole  scene  illustrated  the  character  of  the  inhabitants.  In 
dustry,  virtue,  and  intelligence  had  joined  together  and  laid  their 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ATHERTON,  OF  OHIO.  13 

talismanic  hands  on  the  rugged  hills  and  covered  them  with  prosper 
ity  and  rural  wealth. 

We  moved  on  a  few  miles,  and  looking  other  miles  ahead  beheld 
a  beautiful  little  village  crowning  the  summit  of  a  distant  emi 
nence,  overlooking  the  country  for  a  long  distance  on  all  sides. 

Crossing  a  deep  valley  and  making  a  slow  and  laborious  ascent 
we  at  last  reached  the  town.  It  was  Mount  Pleasant,  the  life-long 
home  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF,  the  home  of  his  boyhood,  of  his  profes 
sional  career,  and  his  riper  manhood. 

Its  location,  its  surroundings,  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  its 
people,  its  proud  elevation  and  pure  atmosphere,  its  clean  streets 
and  grand  perspective  made  it  seem  what  its  name  imports,  Mount 
Pleasant.  Almost  on  the  summit  of  the  town  stood  the  home  ol 
Dr.  UPDEGRAFF.  Large  and  commodious  and  yet  attractive, 
erected  for  utility  and  comfort  rather  than  display,  it  contained 
every  mark  of  culture  and  refinement. 

In  this  little  hamlet  of  perhaps  three  hundred  inhabitants  stands 
an  immense  church,  of  unique  design,  capable  of  seating  two  thou 
sand  inhabitants  or  many  times  the  whole  number  of  the  residents 
of  the  village.  It  belongs  to  a  denomination  of  Christians  that 
discard  the  fashions  and  "  haberdashery"  of  the  world  and  yet  con 
tain  more  of  the  essence  of  real  benevolence,  goodness,  and  pure 
religion  than  any  other — the  Society  of  Friends. 

Of  this  church  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  a  member,  and  in  that 
church  his  funeral  was  preached  and  the  last  honors  paid  to  the 
lamented  and  illustrious  dead. 

To  that  church  the  teeming  inhabitants  of  all  that  region  wended 
their  way  to  pay  a  parting  tribute  of  respect  to  a  citizen  who,  when 
living,  was  most  illustrious,  most  loved,  and  when  dead  the  most 
lamented, 

I  have  given  this  hasty  and  imperfect  sketch  of  the  home  and 
surroundings  of  our  brother  not  without  a  purpose.  It  reflects  the 
character  of  the  man.  Who  could  arrive  at  social,  professional, 
and  political  distinction  with  such  surroundings  and  breathing  such 
an  atmosphere  without  honesty,  truth,  true  manhood,  and  a  high 
order  of  intelligence?  There  was  no  place  there  for  the  sluggard, 


14        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

the  vicious,  or  even  the  man  of  mere  selfish  ambition.  He  would 
necessarily  breathe  purity  from  the  clear  air  and  acquire  industry 
from  the  busy  scenes.  He  would  imbibe  true  religion  from  both 
the  precept  and  daily  example  of  those  surrounding  him  who  be 
lieve  in  and  practice  honesty  and  religion  seven  days  in  the  week 
instead  of  one. 

The  life  and  character  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  illustrated  the  benefi 
cence  and  value  of  his  fortunate  surroundings.  He  was  born 
without  great  wealth  and  at  the  same  time  free  from  the  privations 
and  rigors  of  poverty.  His  birthright  of  fortune  was  the  golden 
mean.  It  furnished  him  with  a  full  opportunity  and  means  to  suc 
cessfully  pursue  the  study  of  his  chosen  profession  without  alluring 
him  into  the  tortuous  paths  of  vice  or  dissipation.  He  selected  the 
practice  of  medicine  and  surgery  as  his  life-work.  He  studied  it 
faithfully  and  with  great  success  in  America  and  in  the  schools  of 
Edinburgh  and  Paris.  He  practiced  it  with  great  honor  to  himself 
and  profit  to  his  people. 

But  eminence  in  his  profession  did  not  fill  the  measure  of  his 
honorable  ambition. 

He  entered  the  political  arena.  He  worthily  represented  a  con 
stituency  in  the  senate  of  Ohio,  when  his  talents  made  him  a  con 
spicuous  member.  He  was  elected  to  the  Forty-sixth  and  Forty- 
seventh  Congresses,  and,  after  the  most  memorable  and  exciting  con 
test  for  renomination  ever  known  in  the  political  history  of  Ohio, 
was  at  the  end  triumphantly  reindorsed  and  re-elected  to  the  Forty- 
eighth  Congress. 

At  the  date  of  his  death  he  was  in  the  very  zenith  of  his  pros 
perity  and  usefulness.  He  had  served  long  enough  in  Congress  to 
have  gained  reputation  and  a  position  of  influence.  He  had  passed 
the  period  of  Congressional  probation  and  had  just  arrived  at  the 
point  where  he  could  demand  a  hearing  and  be  valuable  to  his  con 
stituency. 

He  had  one  session  of  the  present  Congress  before  him  assured 
and  a  whole  Congress  besides. 

He  had  already  left  his  mark  on  the  legislation  of  the  country. 
On  matters  relating  to  agriculture  he  was  authority.  While  his 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  ATHERTON,  OF  OHIO.         15 

past  Congressional  life  had  been  largely  probationary,  the  coming- 
time  was  the  promised  years  of  fruition. 

Touching  his  life-work  I  do  not  intend,  if  I  could,  to  deal  in 
glittering  eulogism,  but  simply  to  state  the  facts  as  they  appear  to 
me. 

He  was  industrious  and  faithful  to  his  noble  profession,  with  a 
conscious  regard  to  his  duties  and  responsibilities,  as  one  who  as 
sumes  to  assist  nature  in  restoring  from  sickness  to  health  the  won 
derful  organism  of  man.  He  sought  faithfully  and  diligently  all 
that  modern  learning  and  science  unfolds,  both  as  to  the  cause  of 
human  ailments  and  the  remedy  for  human  ills.  How  well  he 
succeeded  the  mourning  thousands  who  flocked  to  his  funeral  and 
lamented  his  death  will  bear  witness. 

When  he  entered  politics  he  pursued  a  like  course.  He  faithfully 
conned  anew  both  the  fundamental  and  statute  law  of  his  country. 
He  earnestly  studied  the  philosophy  of  proposed  legislation.  In 
the  discussions  of  the  last  session  on  the  tariff  question,  physician 
as  he  was,  a  comparatively  new  member  as  he  also  was,  he  so  treated, 
and  discussed  this  important  but  threadbare  subject  that  he  ar 
rested  the  attention  of  the  country ;  and  (as  I  know  from  a  modest 
statement  from  his  own  lips)  the  first  copies  of  any  document  ordered 
for  distribution  by  the  Congressional  committee  of  his  party  for  that 
year,  were  10,000  copies  of  that  speech.  It  was  a  manly,  noble, 
earnest,  and  eloquent  effort.  It  displayed  deep  thought  and  great 
power  of  penetration.  As  old  as  the  subject  was,  as  much  as  it  had 
undergone  discussion  by  the  master  minds  of  the  ripest  statesmen 
of  the  world  in  some  points  of  view  and  in  some  of  its  phases  at 
least,  it  seemed  clearer  by  his  discussion  of  it.  Certainly  no  better 
exposition  of  the  question  from  his  stand-point  was  ever  addressed 
to  or  more  fully  brought  within  the  comprehension  of  the  common, 
untrained  mind.  Its  clearness  of  statement  and  its  lucid  logic  con 
tributed  largely  to  that  end. 

I  believe  our  deceased  brother  to  have  been  thoroughly  honest 
and  incorruptible.  Although  his  very  antipode  on  most  political 
questions,  I  always  believed  his  real  power  as  a  speaker  arose  largely 
from  the  thoroughly  honest  conviction  he  brought  to  the  discussion 


1G        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

of  all  questions.  He  always  spoke  and  acted  from  what  to  him 
were  the  very  promptings  of  truth. 

But  at  the  very  noonday  of  his  success  and  usefulness  disease 
laid  its  heavy  hand  upon  him.  With  the  monster  he  battled  man 
fully.  Delusive  hope  held  out  to  his  imagination  the  benison  of  re 
turning  health.  In  the  midst  of  the  most  paiaful  disease  came  the 
period  of  renomination.  Others  coveted  his  place.  Hoping  for 
health  and  battling  with  pain  and  agony,  he  made  his  memorable 
campaign.  His  resolution  was  undaunted. 

One  convention  was  called,  and  after  a  contest  lasting  for  days 
dissolved.  It  was  the  doctor  against  the  field.  He  could  not  be 
nominated  nor  could  he  be  defeated.  The  delegates  surrendered 
their  powers  to  the  people  and  relegated  the  question  to  them.  New 
primaries  were  held,  new  delegates  selected,  a  new  convention  as 
sembled,  and  with  unconquerable  resolution  he  and  his  devoted 
friends  continued  the  battle  and  at  last  victory  perched  on  their  ban 
ners.  He  was  elected  to  the  next  Congress  against  all  opposition. 

But  there  was  an-  enemy  that  no  human  resolution  could  conquer 
and  no  human  power  withstand.  Cruel  and  insatiate  he  visits  the 
palace  and  the  hovel,  he  knocks  impartially  at  the  gates  of  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  and  strikes  down  the  high  and  the  low.  The  dread 
reaper  reaps  the  stocks  of  the  ripened  golden  grain,  "  and  spares  not 
the  flowers  that  grow  between." 

My  memory  reverts  to  the  memorable  word  I  heard  so  oft  re 
peated  in  the  quaint  old  Quaker  church  at  Mount  Pleasant : 

"God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 
His  wonders  to  perform." 

How  they  now  echo  in  the  chambers  of  memory ! 

In  the  mysterious  dispensation  of  His  providence,  for  reasons  hid 
den  from  the  wisdom  of  man  but  of  the  highest  wisdom  when 
viewed  in  the  light  of  that  intelligence  that  spans  all  time  and  all 
space,  the  Master  permitted  the  reaper  to  come.  Our  brother  was 
not  unprepared.  The  visions  of  earthly  ambition  vanished,  the 
bright  hope  of  future  achievement  melted  into  air,  but  in  their  stead 
he  saw  the  dawning  light  of  blissful  eternity.  The  sun  of  that 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  McKINLEY,  OF  OHIO.  17 

Thanksgiving  Day  went  down  in  darkness.  All  the  morning 
seemed  to  bring  to  earthly  eyes  was  death,  a  coffin,  and  a  shroud ; 
but  let  us  hope  as  well  we  may — 

"That  when  the  sun,  in  all  his  state, 

Illumed  the  eastern  skies 
He  passed  through  glory's  morning-gate 
And  walked  in  Paradise." 


Address  of  Mr.  McKiNLEY,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  cannot  permit  this  occasion  to  pass  without 
arresting  the  attention  of  the  House  to  bear  testimony  to  the  worth 
of  my  departed  friend.  "  There  is  nothing  certain  in  man's  life  but 
this,  that  he  must  lose  it,"  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  who  par 
ticipated  in  the  deliberations  of  this  House  at  its  first  session,  and 
who  last  August  parted  company  with  his  associates  in  robust  health 
and  full  intellectual  strength,  is  dead.  I  will  not  detain  the  House 
with  a  history  of  his  early  life  and  public  achievements ;  these  have 
been  fully  recited  by  his  successor  [Mr.  Taylor]  and  others  who 
have  preceded  me,  more  in  detail  and  better  than  I  could  possibly 
do.  I  shall  content  myself  with  a  brief  statement  of  some  of  the 
features  of  his  personal  character  which  impressed  me  during  an 
acquaintance  of  many  years. 

In  public  station,  whether  in  State  or  national  affairs,  he  was 
respected  and  honored ;  in  private  life,  beloved  by  a  large  and  in 
fluential  circle  of  friends.  He  was  simple  in  his  habits  and  tastes, 
strong  in  his  friendships,  tender  and  devoted  in  his  family  rela 
tions,  generous  and  confiding  in  his  nature,  firm  and  unyielding  in 
his  convictions  of  duty.  He  hated  shams  and  despised  preten 
sions,  and  his  simple  nature  esteemed  candor  and  sincerity  above 
everything  else.  He  regarded  any  labor  or  sacrifice  for  principle 
a  religious  duty,  and  he  would  go  out  of  his  way  to  help  a  friend. 

He  had  the  advantage  of  early  and  thorough  instruction,  and 

through  his  whole  life  was  an  apt  student  of  men  and  affairs. 

He  was  literary  in  his  tastes,  fond  of  the  best  books  and  best 

thoughts,  old  and  new,  and  his  library  at  home  evidenced  the  dis- 

0171 2 


18    LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.  VPDEaRAFF. 

cerning  hand  of  a  man  of  culture.  He  was  interested  in  general 
education  ;  not  the  technical  merely,  but  that  broad  and  enlight 
ened  instruction  which  makes  good  men  and  intelligent  and  self- 
respecting  citizens. 

He  was  well  equipped  for  the  trust  to  which  an  admiring  peo 
ple  elevated  him  in  1878.  Possessed  of  great  intellectual  force,  ripe 
attainments,  experience  in  public  matters,  and  integrity  of  character, 
he  was  splendidly  prepared  for  public  life  and  official  trust.  He 
was  a  positive  man — a  nature  full  of  convictions  and  with  a  cour 
age  to  utter  them.  He  therefore  had  his  antagonisms,  and  was  not 
without  opposition  in  his  own  party  ranks,  but  these  were  fully 
compensated  by  the  devotion  and  steadfastness  of  friends  by 
whom  he  was  always  surrounded,  and  whose  loyalty  to  him 
never  lagged  and  whose  devotion  never  abated.  In  this  House 
he  was  a  careful,  studious,  painstaking,  intelligent  Represent 
ative,  seldom,  if  ever,  absent  from  his  post  of  duty,  watching 
with  interest  and  intelligence  the  course  and  effect  of  legislation ; 
and  while  he  did  not  often  participate  in  debate,  he  never  spoke 
without  adding  something  to  the  subject  under  discussion. 

He  was  a  staunch  friend  and  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  agricul 
tural  interests  of  £he  country,  and  to  him  we  are  indebted,  in  a 
large  degree,  for  some  of  the  best  legislation  of  the  past  four  years 
touching  that  interest.  A  farmer  himself,  he  knew  their  needs, 
and  never  hesitated  to  advocate  and  en  force  them.  He  was  closely 
identified  with  the  agricultural  interests  of  his  State,  and  his  fre 
quent  addresses  upon  that  subject  made  him  well  and  favorably 
known,  and  gave  him  a  high  place  among  that  large  and  intelli 
gent  class  of  citizens.  His  most  notable  speech  on  the  floor  of 
this  House  during  his  four  years  of  service,  and  the  one  which 
will  be  most  remembered,  was  made  at  the  first  session  of  the  pres 
ent-  Congress  on  the  general  subject  of  the  tariff.  That  speech  was 
comprehensive  and  statesmanlike,  and  elicited  deserved  applause 
from  his  associates  and  the  country  at  large.  It  was  circulated  in 
large  editions  in  many  of  the  States,  and  proved  a  valuable  contri 
bution  to  the  volumes  of  tariff  debates. 

Large-minded,  unselfish,  and  generous,  lie  commanded  the  re 
spect  and  esteem  of  both  sides  of  this  chamber  ;  men  of  all  parties 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    WILLIS,  OF  KENTUCKY.  1<J 

believed  in  his  honesty  of  purpose  and  fidelity  to  convictions,  and 
we  all  miss  him  from  these  halls. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Friends7  Society,  and  conspicuous  in 
that  strong  and  influential  body  of  Christians.  They,  too,  will 
miss  him.  His  own  friends  and  fellow-townsmen  cannot  supply 
his  place.  The  love  of  his  neighbors  was  demonstrated  on  the  oc 
casion  of  his  funeral ;  every  business  house  in  his  village  was  closed  ; 
tokens  of  love  and  sorrow  were  seen  on  every  hand  ;  every  house 
bore  its  badges  of  mourning.  The  little  village  of  Mount  Pleasant 
was  strewn  with  the  emblems  of  sorrow,  and  the  neighborhood  as 
sembled  without  distinction  of  sect  or  party  to  pay  a  final  tribute 
to  their  deceased  friend,  brother,  neighbor,  representative. 

During  his  illness  the  nobleness  of  his  character  appeared  at  its 
best.  Uncomplainingly  he  suffered,  and  so  sensitive  for  the  feel 
ings  of  his  friends  that  he  denied  most  of  them  presence  in  his  sick 
chamber  lest  his  suffering  might  give  them  pain.  He  was  patient 
and  brave  in  his  great  affliction,  submitting  with  Christian  faith  to 
the  call  of  death.  He  closed  his  life  with  messages  of  love  to  pre 
sent  and  absent  friends,  confident  of  friendly  greetings  beyond  from 
those  who  had  passed  on  before.  From  one  who  was  nearest  to  him 
I  learn  that  he  daily  and  hourly  repeated  the  words  of  the  Psalmist : 

"The  Lord  has  chastened  me  sore,  but  He  hath  not  given  me  over  unto  death. 
Open  to  me  the  gates  of  righteousness ;  I  will  go  into  them  and  praise  the 
Lord." 

The  nursing  of  a  devoted  wife  could  not  save,  him.  The  prayers 
of  friends  could  not  restore  him. 

"  God's  finger  touched  him  and  he  slept.'' 
The  gates  were  opened  and  he  entered  in. 


Address  of  Mr.  WILLIS,  of  Kentucky. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  We  pause  to-day  in  the  midst  of  busy  duties  to  lay 
the  laurel  wreath  of  memory  and  affection  upon  the  grave  of  a  de 
parted  colleague. 

Half  a  year  ago,  at  our  midsummer  adjournment,  I  parted  with 
Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  in  this  hall.  Erect  in  form,  of  strong  physical 


20        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

constitution,  and  the  most  temperate  habits,  glowing  with  health  and 
vigor,  length  of  days  seemed  to  be  as  surely  his  as  if  held  by  a  bond 
to  fate.  We  exchanged  friendly  words  of  good-will  and  of  fare 
well,  and  separated  with  the  mutual  hope  that  we  would  soon  "meet 
again." 

But  a  few  short  months  had  passed;  the  green  meadows  upon  the 
high  and  fertile  plateaus  which  encircle  his  far-off  Western  home 
were  yet  fresh  and  beautiful  when  we  did  "  meet  again."  But  how 
sadly  changed,  how  different  the  circumstances  from  what  we  had 
hoped.  The  heart  whose  generous  ministrations  had  won  my  regard 
and  the  regard  of  all  who  knew  him  had  ceased  to  beat ;  the  hand,  open 
as  day  to  "  sweet  charity,"  whose  warm  grasp  I  had  so  recently  re 
laxed,  was  cold  and  pulseless  ;  the  voice  whose  persuasive  eloquence 
had  so  often  charmed  was  mute  forever  ;  after  a  brief  but  painful 
illness  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  had  answered  the  solemn  and  mysterious 
summons,  and  joined  the  "  pale  nations  of  the  dead." 

Dead  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood  and  in  the  hour  of  his  greatest 
political  triumph ;  dead  in  the  bosom  of  his  family ;  dead  in  the 
midst  of  faithful  friends  and  admiring  fellow-citizens. 

Dead,  did  I  say  ?  And  yet  has  not  the  poet  well  and  truly  de 
clared — 

To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 
Is  not  to  die. 

And  to  quote  the  chaste  and  eloquent  words  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF 
himself: 

Is  not  influence  immortal?  Shall  not  a  worthy  example,  a  true  thought, 
a  noble  act,  no  matter  how  humbly  born,  wear  its  life  and  do  its  work  through 
all  the  years  to  come.  It  was  a  beautiful  thought  of  a  great  scientist  that 
every  sound  which  ever  stirred  the  air  went  on  vibrating  to  eternity.  It  is 
true,  at  least,  of  all  moral  and  spiritual  forces. 

Never  did  I  realize  more  fully  the  truth  and  beauty  of  these 
words  than  when,  as  a  member  of  the  funeral  cortege,  I  gathered 
with  his  friends  and  loved  ones  at  the  bier  of  him  who  spoke  them. 
When  I  witnessed  the  deep  sense  of  personal  bereavement  which 
pervaded  that  circle  and  the  entire  community — how  the  humble  cot 
tage  and  the  little  workshop,  as  well  as  the  more  stately  mansion, 
were  robed  in  the  habiliments  of  sorrow  ;  when  I  heard  there  and 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   WILLIS,  OF  KENTUCKY.  21 

everywhere  the  tender  and  appreciative  words  which  came  from 
full  hearts,  I  felt  that  though  dead  he  yet  liveth.  The  golden  bowl 
of  a  true  and  noble  life  may  be  broken,  but  the  gentle  virtues,  the 
kindly  deeds,  and  great  purposes  which  have  filled  it  with  beauty 
and  value  will  remain,  and,  like  incense  from  an  altar,  will  sweeten 
and  consecrate  the  air,  and  that,  too,  for  unnumbered  years. 

What  those  virtues  were — what  the  noble  ends  which  marked  the 
career  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF,  and  what  the  means  by  which  he  se 
cured  those  ends,  I  might  here  give  in  detailed  particularity.  I 
might  speak  of  him  as  a  man,  courteous,  amiable,  brave,  and  gen 
erous  ;  as  a  citizen,  full  of  energy,  enterprise,  and  patriotism ;  as  a 
public  servant,  repeatedly  honored  with  the  responsibilities  of  high 
station  and  always  upright,  conscientious,  and  faithful  to  the  trust. 
I  might  refer  to  various  measures  with  which  he  was  identified  here 
and  elsewhere  as  illustrative  of  his  broad,  liberal,  generous  states 
manship.  As  a  Representative  of  that  part  of  our  country  most 
vitally  affected,  I  might  especially  mention  his  active  and  intelli 
gent  support,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Epidemic  Diseases, 
in  behalf  of  the  bill  to  prevent  the  introduction  and  spread  of  yel 
low  fever — that  fearful  pestilence  which  "  walketh  in  darkness  and 
destroyeth  at  noonday,"  whose  consuming  breath  has  destroyed  so 
many  of  the  bravest  and  best  of  our  land. 

Nor  would  I  forget  his  equally  earnest  and  unselfish  efforts,  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor,  to  secure 
the  passage  by  Congress  of  the  bill  to  prevent  the  growth  and 
spread  among  our  people  of  ignorance — that  curse  more  enduring 
in  its  effects  and  more  blighting  to  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of 
a  country  than  either  war  or  pestilence.  For  his  support  of  these 
two  measures  alone  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  will  always  be  held  in  the 
grateful  remembrance  of  our  people  as  a  benefactor  and  wise  law 
maker.  Such  legislation  redounds  to  the  best  interests  of  the  whole 
Union;  it  bears  "healing  upon  its  wings"  for  political  as  well  as 
physical  ills,  and  will  ever  be  welcomed  by  our  people  as  the  mes 
senger  of  fraternal  affection — the  witness  of  enlightened,  generous 
statesmanship. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  recount  at  length  the  virtues  and  char 
acteristics  of  our  lamented  associate — they  are  known  to  his  friends 
and  to  fame — they  have  been  embalmed  in  our  memory  by  the 


22       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

affectionate  hands  of  his  immediate  colleagues.  I  could  not,  if  I 
would,  add  a  single  line  to  the  tender  and  beautiful,  but  most  accu 
rate,  portraiture  they  have  placed  before  us  to-day.  But  their  voice 
nor  mine  can  "  provoke  the  silent  dust/'  or  "  soothe  the  dull,  cold 
ear  of  death."  Fortunate,  however,  will  each  of  us  be  if  we  shall 
so  imitate  the  virtues  which  adorned  his  life  that  when  death  comes 
we  may  be,  like  him — "  at  rest " — until  our  freed  spirits  awaken  to 
the  pure  light  and  blissful  scenes  of  immortality  beyond  the  grave. 
And  how  soon,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  all  of  us  will  that  unseen  world 
be  revealed  ?  How  often  during  the  past  year,  unbidden  and  un 
heralded,  has  the  weird  spirit  of  the  glass  and  scythe  entered  this 
hall.  Hardly  a  month  has  passed  that  the  half-masted  flag  and  the 
vacant  chair,  clad  in  its  "  vestments  of  woe,"  have  not  reminded 
us  that  another  colleague  had  heard  his  dread  summons  and  gone 
hence  forever.  Since  the  Forty-seventh  Congress  convened  eight 
of  these  United  States  have  stood  as  mourners  around  the  open 
graves  of  their  chosen  representatives.  How  suggestive  this  of  the 
uncertainty,  the  instability,  the  utter  helplessness  of  life  and  of  life's 
highest  hopes  and  dearest  ambitions.  And  how  solemn  the  ad 
monition  so  to  discharge  our  duties  here  as  to  secure  the  rewards  of 
the  great  hereafter. 

Yes,  the  shores  of  life  are  shifting 

Every  year, 
And  we  are  seaward  drifting 

Every  year, 

Old  places,  changing,  fret  us, 
The  living  more  forget  us 

Every  year. 

But  the  truer  life  draws  nigher 

Every  year, 
And  its  morning  star  climbs  higher 

Every  year, 

Earth's  hold  on  us  grows  slighter 
And  the  heavy  burden  lighter, 
And  the  dawn  immortal  brighter 

Every  year. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SKINNER,  OF  NEW  YORK.  23 


Address  of  Mr.  SKINNER,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  summons  which  must  sooner  or  later  come 
to  us  all  has  again  been  heard,  and  this  occasion  reminds  us  anew 
how  frail  is  our  hold  upon  that  strange  thing  called  life.  Once 
more  this  great  department  of  the  Government  stops  its  accustomed 
work,  the  ponderous  wheels  of  legislation  cease  their  revolutions, 
and  we  gather  here  to  pay  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  and  to 
speak  kind  words  of  a  brother  who  has  finished  his  work  and  gone 
home. 

But  yesterday  these  halls  resounded  with  the  inharmonious  tones 
of  excited  discussion.  There  was  the  hurried  confusion  of  heated 
debate,  the  almost  angry  conflict  of  party  strife,  the  busy  commin 
gling  of  contrary  opinions,  and  the  earnest  grappling  for  personal 
or  party  advantage.  Words  were  not  at  all  times  rounded  with 
charity  or  good  will. 

To-day  there  is  the  invisible  presence  of  a  spirit  all  about  us 
which  hides  the  excitement  of  partisan  feeling,  and  words  of  pas 
sion  pass  away  in  the  hush  of  sympathy  and  in  the  memory  of 
grief. 

Kind  words  alone  are  spoken  now,  tempered  by  feeling  only ; 
words  which  seek  to  paint  on  in  visible  canvas  the  virtues  of  a  well- 
spent  life,  words  of  praise  for  the  honored  dead,  of  consolation  to 
living. 

How  often  in  reading  the  eloquent  eulogies  which  have  been  pro 
nounced  in  this  chamber  have  we  wished  they  could  have  been 
heard  by  the  living  ears  of  those  who  have  gone.  Alas,  too  often 
we  wait  until  our  friends  have  left  us  forever  before  we  tell  their 
virtues.  And  we  ofttimes  wonder  if  the  words  here  spoken  will 
have  life  beyond  their  utterance.  May  we  not  hope  that  like  the 
fragrance  distilled  from  the  flowers,  which  floats  upward  on  the 
balmy  air,  like  incense  from  the  burning  oil,  they  will  rise  into  the 
celestial  region  of  eternal  rest  and  reach  the  ear  of  him  we  mourn, 
who  sits  near  the  great  white  throne  and  sends  us  back  greetings  of 
gratitude  and  brotherly  love. 


24      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

Those  who  knew  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  best  in  life,  who  followed  his 
public  career  with  the  interest  which  close  friendship  imparts,  who 
were  associated  with  him  in  fraternal  intercourse,  who  knew  him  as 
a  public  servant  in  his  own  great  State,  have  fittingly  told  of  his 
busy  life  and  how  well  he  lived  it.  Those  to  whom  his  friendship 
was  just  unfolding  as  a  new  possession,  who  were  learning  to  value 
his  acquaintance  as  something  to  be  treasured  among  pleasant  mem 
ories,  who  could  see  and  admire  the  ability,  the  industry,  and  the 
intelligence  which  he  threw  into  his  work  among  us — those  who 
were  the  recipients  of  his  cordial  greetings  and  kindly  advice,  can 
only  hope  to  lay  a  small  tribute  of  regard  upon  this  altar  of  good 
will.  It  is  not  the  length  of  man's  friendship  which  gives  it  value ; 
it  is,  rather,  the  life-long  impressions  which  it  plants  and  the  good 
that  grows  out  of  it.  A  few  months  were  sufficient  to  impress  one 
with  the  height  and  breadth  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF'S  culture  and  worth. 
They  will  live  far  beyond  the  life  of  the  man,  to  inspire  those  who 
felt  the  influence  of  his  example  and  who  learned  the  true  worth  of 
the  precepts  which  always  governed  his  actions.  It  was  a  grand 
thing  to  know  such  a  man  and  to  count  him  a  friend. 

It  was  a  privilege  to  visit  the  place  where  he  lived  and  died. 
Over  the  mountains  to  a  pretty  village  went  one  December  day  those 
who  had  been  designated  by  you,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  participate  in  the 
funeral  ceremonies  as  representatives  of  this  body.  There  were  seen 
the  beautiful  village  wearing  the  garb  of  mourning  at  the  loss  of  a 
respected  citizen  ;  a  stricken  household,  where  wife,  children,  and 
relatives  gathered  in  mutual  grief,  and  bemoaned  the  lost  love  of  a 
husband,  father,  and  brother;  a  church  filled  with  sad  faces  of 
Friends  who  had  lost  a  friend  indeed ;  a  community  mingling  its 
tears  together  at  the  death  of  one  who  had  made  the  world  better 
for  his  living. 

There  were  heard  the  glowing  and  affectionate  tributes  of  pastor 
and  friends  paid  to  the  finished  life  and  character  of  him  whom  we 
mourn  to-day — the  testimony  paid  to  his  virtues  and  varied  accom 
plishments  of  mind  and  heart  by  those  who  knew  him  so  well,  and 
among  whom  he  had  steadily  grown  in  strength,  influence,  useful 
ness,  and  honor.  The  tears  which  followed  these  testimonies  to  his 
worth  spoke  as  eloquently  as  the  words  from  the  lips.  There  was 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SKINNER,  OF  NEW  YORK.  25 

universal  proof  of  the  loss  which  family,  and  village,  and  State,  and 
country  had  sustained.     An  upright  man,  an  earnest  Christian,  an 
enterprising  citizen,  and  an  honest  public  servant  had  gone  to  his 
reward.     In  the  record  he  had  made  for  himself  we  know — 
He  wore  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless  life. 

Just  as  the  Congress  in  which  he  had  already  proved  his  useful 
ness  was  about  opening  its  second  session  the  last  honors  were  being 
paid  our  departed  friend.  After  a  hard  struggle  with  a  mighty  pain 
he  lay  at  rest  in  a  peaceful  sleep  which  has  no  waking  this  side  the 
shores  of  the  dark  river. 

Nearly  fifty  years  ago  these  words  were  spoken  in  the  halls  of 
Congress  of  one  whose  work  had  just  ended.  They  seem  to  befit 
ting  now : 

His  name  should  be  his  epitaph ;  and  however  blank  it  may  appear  to  the 
vacant  eye  of  the  passing  stranger,  it  will  always  have  the  power  to  call  up 
the  recollections  of  his  virtues  in  the  bosom  of  friendship  and  the  tear  of  uu- 
dissembled  sorrow  in  the  eye  of  affection — offerings  more  grateful  and  con 
genial  to  the  disembodied  spirit  than  the  proudest  monument  which  human 
art  can  erect  or  the  most  studied  eulogy  which  human  eloquence  can  pronounce. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  left  his  impress  upon  this  House ;  he  left  it  upon 
the  world.  It  was  always  for  good;  and  is  there  not  a  creed  which 
holds  that  nothing  good  is  ever  lost?  Is  not  his  influence  still  over 
and  about  us  ?  Is  not  the  example  of  upright  life  and  earnest  action 
eternal — always  pressing  forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  noble 
purposes  ?  We  know  that  he  held  this  belief.  In  an  address  de 
livered  before  the  young  ladies  of  the  Steubenville  Female  Academy 
a  few  years  ago  his  theme  was  "  A  Purpose  in  Life,"  and  he  gave 
expression  to  the  following  graceful  thoughts  : 

If  your  life  shall  have  a  true  and  noble  purpose  it  shall  so  enlarge  your  ca 
pacity  for  enjoyment  that  your  deeper  joys  shall  contrast  with  the  mere 
pleasures  of  youth  as  the  rapture  of  a  seraph  is  higher  than  the  prattling 
laughter  of  a  child.  The  joy  of  a  conscious  dedication  to  some  worthy 
work  exalts  the  whole  being.  It  makes  plain  the  beautiful  thought  of  an 
eastern  fable:  "I  was  common  clay  till  roses  were  planted  in  me."  An  abso 
lute  consecration  to  a  purpose  becomes  inspiration  and  commands  victory. 

In  speaking  of  influence  he  said  : 

In  the  immortality  of  influence  there  are  no  trifles.  A  worthy  example,  a 
true  thought,  a  noble  act,  no  matter  how  humbly  born,  shall  wear  its  life  and 


26      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

do  its  work  through  all  the  years  to  come.  It  was  a  beautiful  thought  of  a 
great  scientist  that  every  sound  which  ever  stirred  the  air  went  on  vibrating 
to  eternity.  It  is  true  at  least  of  all  moral  and  spiritual  forces. 

In  closing  his  address  he  makes  this  beautiful  wish  and  prayer, 
almost  prophetic  of  the  eternal  joys  which  now  must  be  his  own  : 

May  life  in  the  nobleness  of  its  purposes,  in  the  beneficence  of  its  results, 
in  the  richness  and  glory  of  its  rewards  be  for  each  of  you  only  fit  prelude  and 
preparation  for  the  ineffable  fruition  of  changless  joys. 

To  those  of  us  who  remain,  occasions  like  this  may  well  seem 
like  admonitions.  To-day  our  brother  sleeps.  It  is  we  who  speak. 
To-morrow  our  lips  may  be  silent  and  other  voices  speak  as  we  are 
speaking.  In  the  lottery  of  death  there  are  no  blanks. 

It  is  a  part  of  life  to  mourn.  Death  is  a  rest  in  peace.  Those 
who  live  must  grieve.  Those  who  leave  us  have  no  sorrows.  With 
them  all  is  over  and  the  eternal  problem  solved. 

Unless  we  anchor  our  hopes  in  the  hereafter  we  find  the  sum  of 
earthly  happiness  borne  down  by  its  sorrows.  This  is  only  one  sad 
chapter  in  life's  history.  The  dread  moment  is  sure  to  come  when 
the  happiness  of  a  life-time  melts  away  in  one  sad  hour.  Yester 
day  it  was  the  child  just  unfolding  into  the  beautiful  mysteries  of 
life,  and  whose  death  breaks  our  hearts  and  spoils  our  lives.  To 
day  it  is  the  middle-aged,  just  ready  to  reap  the  fruit  ripening  un 
der  his  culture  ;  to-morrow  the  aged  go,  full  of  years  and  useful 
ness,  whose  light  goes  not  out  in  darkness  but  burns  to  the  socket 
in  a  well-rounded  life. 

Our  friend  is  dead.     And  yet  what  is  death  ? 

To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 
Is  not  to  die. 

Whether  we  shall  see  him  face  to  face  in  that  undiscovered  country ; 
whether  we  shall  know  him  there  as  we  knew  him  here  ;  whether 
body  and  soul  separate  here  to  be  again  united  "  over  there ; "  whether 
that  better  life  is  a  commingling  of  kindred  spirits,  while  the  body 
returns  to  dust ;  whether  it  is  all  of  life  to  live  or  all  of  death  to 
die  ;  whether  his  pure  soul  is  hovering  around  us  still  or  marching 
on  to  glories  which  we  cannot  see,  and  which  with  him  are  just  be 
gun,  are  problems  which  we  shall  all  solve  in  God's  good  time. 

Until  then  it  is  happiness  to  trust  that  we  shall  all  live  again. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  NEAL,  OF  OHIO.  27 

With  us,  as  with  his  loving  family,  it  is  a  blessed  hope,  a  comfort 
ing  belief,  yes,  a  happy  conviction,  that  it  is  not  all  of  death  to  die, 
that  it  is  but  an  entrance  into  eternal  life.  To  those  who  are  soothed 
by  this  "  unfaltering  trust " — 

There  is  no  death !     What  seems  so  is  transition. 

This  life  of  mortal  breath 
Is  but  a  suburb  of  the  life  elysian 

Whose  portal  we  call  Death  ! 


Address  of  Mr.  NEAL,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  "  Earth  to  earth,  dust  to  dust,  ashes  to  ashes." 
Thus  all  that  was  mortal  of  our  late  associate,  colleague,  and  friend, 
Dr.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  was  by  his  bereaved  family,  sor 
rowing  friends,  and  neighbors  who  thus  did  homage  to  his  private 
virtues  and  public  worth,  consigned  to  the  dark  and  silent  tomb,  the 
final  resting  place  of  all  the  races  of  mankind. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  make  any  extended  statement  of  his  life 
and  public  services.  Others  who  have  known  him  longer  and  more 
intimately  than  I,  have  already  discharged  that  loving,  yet  melan 
choly,  duty  most  appropriately  and  eloquently.  Suffice  it,  then, 
for  me  to  say  that  the  distinguished  deceased  parted  from  us  upon 
the  adjournment  of  the  first  session  of  this  Congress  in  August 
last,  full  of  life,  in  the  expectation  of  a  pleasant  sojourn  at  his 
country  home  which  he  loved  so  well,  during  the  brief  vacation  in 
tervening  before  the  commencement  of  the  present  session  of  the 
Forty-seventh  Congress. 

Like  all  of  us,  he  confidently  expected  to  return  hither  and  per 
form  his  part  in  the  great  and  important  work  of  legislating  for 
the  50,000,000  of  human  beings  who  now  inhabit  the  territory  of 
this  free  and  mighty  Federal  Republic,  happily  once  again  united, 
not  only  by  the  strong  bonds  of  law  and  order,  but  the  still  stronger 
ones  of  patriotic  allegiance,  fidelity,  and  love,  from  the  pine-clad 
forests  of  the  North  to  the  everglades  of  the  South,  from  the  rock- 
bound  coast  of  the  East  to  the  Golden  Gate  of  the  West. 

There  was  no  outward  appearance  of  the  insidious  disease  which 


28         LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   VPDEGRAFF. 

was  even  then  preying  upon  his  vitals.  No  one  of  his  associates 
upon  this  floor,  I  apprehend,  had  any  suspicion  that  the  great  enemy, 
or  shall  I  say  friend,  of  the  human  race,  Death,  had  then  selected  him 
for  his  own,  and  ere  the  expiration  of  ninety  days  would  take  him 
hence.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  us  would  gladly  have  exchanged 
his  chances  of  earthly  existence  for  our  own.  How  our  expecta 
tions  perish  !  How  our  hopes  are  disappointed  !  Behold  him,  the 
strong  man,  the  man  of  heart  and  brain,  the  man  with  the  mind  to 
conceive,  the  will  to  dare,  and  the  hand  to  execute ;  the  man  of 
force  and  of  action,  animated  by  every  high  and  holy  aspiration, 
controlled  by  every  right  impulse,  cut  down  in  the  meridian  of  an 
active  and  useful  life,  with  his  armor  girt  upon  him,  and,  sword  in 
hand,  battling  manfully  for  the  right.  Once  again  we  are  reminded 
that  the  battle  is  not  to  the  strong  nor  the  race  to  the  swift.  But 
death  is  not  an  eternal  sleep,  a  never-ending,  always  enduring 
Nirvana;  it  is  rather  the  approaching  of  our  night  to  be  followed 
by  a  day  more  brilliant,  the  fading  of  the  transient  flower  of  our 
life,  that  it  may  rebloom  in  another  world  of  joy  resplendent  and 
of  happiness  supernal. 

Cicero,  the  wise,  grand  man  of  ancient  Rome  in  her  golden  days 
of  history,  philosophy,  and  of  poetry — one  of  the  world's  most  sin 
cere  seekers  after  truth  and  after  God,  in  contemplating  this  inter 
esting  subject  of  bodily  dissolution  thus  discourses :  "  Some  men 
make  womanish  complaints  that  it  is  a  great  misfortune  to  die  be 
fore  one's  time.  I  would  ask  what  time?  Is  it  that  of  nature? 
But  she  indeed  has  lent  us  life  as  we  do  a  sum  of  money,  only  no 
certain  day  is  fixed  for  payment.  What  reason  then  to  complain 
if  she  demands  it  at  pleasure,  since  it  was  on  this  condition  we  re 
ceived  it." 

It  was  thus  our  friend  died.  Not  with  blenched  cheek,  with  un 
manly  fear  in  his  heart,  dreading  to  meet  the  King  of  Terrors  face 
to  face;  but  fearlessly,  as  the  brave  man  dies  who  has  performed 
well  his  part,  saying  in  his  heart,  if  not  by  voice,  "  It  is  the  will 
of  God ;  His  will  be  done." 

No  doubt  he  loved  life,  as  we  all  love  it.  This  beautiful  world, 
with  its  green  fields  and  blooming  flowers,  was  attractive  to  him,  as 
it  is  to  every  well-ordered  person  who  lives  a  true  life.  He  could 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  BUTTER  WORTH,  OF  OHIO.  29 

look  upon  the  past  without  blushing  for  time  unprofitably  spent, 
or  charging  himself  with  having  been  slothful  or  insincere ;  and 
the  future  was  glowing  with  bright  hopes  and  high  expectations. 
Why,  then,  should  he  not  have  desired  to  linger  longer  in  his  earthly 
tabernacle  ?  When  death  came — 

"  It  was  to  him  but  as  another  life. 
We  bow  our  heads  at  getting  out ; 
We  think,  and  enter  strait 
Another  golden  chamber  of  the  King's ; 
Larger  than  this  we  leave,  and  lovlier, 
And  then  in  shadowy  glimpses  disconnect. 
The  story,  flower-like,  closes  thus  its  leaves, 
And  God  is  all  in  all." 

Mr.  Speaker,  our  late  friend  and  associate  has  disappeared  for 
ever  from  our  earthly  view.  We  shall  see  him  no  more  with  mortal 
vision.  If  our  lives  are  as  earnest,  sincere,  truthful,  and  useful  as 
his  was,  we  will  go  to  him.  He  comes  110  more  to  us;  but  while 
forever  gone  he  will  not  be  forgotten,  for  in  the  ocean  of  memory 
there  is  an  island  upon  whose  shores  the  waves  beat  with  ceaseless 
roar. 


Address  of  Mr.  BuTTERWORTH,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER.  We  are  charged  to  speak  nothing  but  good  of  the 
dead.  I  doubt  the  merit  of  that  maxim.  It  draws  no  line  between 
those  lives  that  were  worthy  and  those  that  were  barren  wastes. 

But  if  the  maxim  is  wise  and  humane,  the  life  and  character  of 
Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  were  such  that  we  would  not  invoke  the  shield 
which  an  observance  of  the  maxim  might  afford. 

He  was  one  of  those  who  well  might  challenge  even  his  enemies 
to  scan  his  record  closely,  released  from  the  restraints  of  the  char 
itable  maxim  mentioned,  and  speak  nothing  but  the  truth. 

If  our  late  colleague  could  have  left  an  injunction  which  should 
bind  those  who  speak  of  him  here  to-day,  it  would  have  been, 
"  Speak  of  me  as  I  was.  Speak  of  me  as  you  knew  me.  Say  the 
truth  or  say  nothing.7'  A  worthy  life  may  challenge  praise,  while 


30    LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF. 

that  one  which  presents  to  the  world  a  desert  waste  is  entitled  only 
to  the  charity  of  silence.  Men's  vices  teach  as  well  as  their  virtues, 
and  if  we  must  learn  from  each  let  the  instruction  be  such  as  may 
give  profit.  For  a  single  moment  I  will  speak  of  Dr.  UPDE- 
GRAFF  as  I  knew  him,  as  I  think  he  was. 

I  knew  him  well;  his  strong  points  and  his  weaknesses;  his 
manner  of  study  and  his  mode  of  thought.  He  first  squared  his 
purpose  to  the  requirements  of  a  clean,  clear  conscience.  The  work 
his  judgment  and  his  conscience  approved  he  addressed  himself  to 
with  a  will  inflexible  and  unyielding.  He  resolved  all  doubts  in 
favor  of  the  end  he  sought.  He  did  nothing  rashly,  but  all  things 
with  care.  He  never  recognized  the  possibility  of  discomfiture  or 
defeat.  He  considered  carefully  before  he  acted;  but  once  em 
barked  in  an  enterprise  he  seldom  failed  to  accomplish  what  he 
undertook.  Strong  in  will  power,  great  in  moral  courage,  he  had 
no  patience  with  cowardice,  and  held  the  vacillating  in  contempt. 

He  was  of  a  race  that  possessed  those  great  qualities  of  serious 
earnestness  and  dogged  continuity  of  purpose  which  characterized 
the  Dutch  and  made  that  people  more  than  a  match  for  the  tower 
ing  strength  and  boundless  resources  of  Spain  at  the  zenith  of  her 
glory  and  power.  He  was  unpretending  in  his  life  and  manner. 
He  was  the  embodiment  of  thoughtfulness,  of  earnestness,  and  en 
ergy.  His  natural  endowments  were  excellent;  his  mental  furnish 
ings  suggestive  of  strength  and  usefulness,  rather  than  grace  and 
ornament. 

He  was,  while  serious  and  reflective,  a  wit,  and  when  in  the  so 
ciety  of  congenial  friends  a  most  delightful  conversationalist.  He 
was  a  careful  student.  He  never  wasted  a  minute  reading  or  coin 
ing  a  sentence  that  was  barren  of  mental  nourishment.  He  was 
very  fond  of  studying  the  English  classics.  He  read  over  and  over 
again  the  works  of  Bacon  and  Macaulay ;  was  especially  charmed 
with  the  style  of  the  latter.  UPDEGRAFF  never  read  a  line  which 
contained  or  suggested  some  great  thought  that  he  did  not  commit 
it  to  memory.  His  mind  was  a  storehouse  well  filled,  nor  would 
an  examination  of  that  store  reveal  the  waste  and  rubbish  that  is 
found  in  the  invoice  and  effects  of  common  minds,  He  obtained 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  EUTTERWORTH,  OF  OHIO.  31 

knowledge  for  use,  and  as  the  foundation  of  wisdom  unto  which  he 
was  growing. 

In  the  storehouse  of  his  mind  he  was  methodical.  Every  fact 
he  learned,  every  utterance  he  treasured  up  in  his  memory,  every 
thought  he  cherished,  was  ever  at  his  command  and  available  to 
grace  his  conversation  or  strengthen  his  argument.  He  studied 
history  less  to  ascertain  the  facts  recited  than  to  learn  the  philoso 
phy  they  teach.  The  labor  of  his  life  was  to  attain  for  himself  and 
mankind  to  the  better  things,  to  improve  the  conditions  with  which 
he  was  surrounded,  to  lift  men  up  to  a  higher  and  more  rational 
plane  of  enjoyment.  His  disposition  to  have  the  better  things  was 
apparent  in  all  that  he  did,  even  in  the  corn  he  raised  and  the  cattle 
he  cared  for. 

He  was  frank  and  candid,  sometimes  painfully  so,  and  his  honest 
and  forcible  manner  of  stating  plain  truths  tended  to  write  him 
down  as  an  unamiable  man.  True  it  is  that  he  had  little  patience 
with  that  disposition  of  society  which  is  so  much  concerned  about 
the  graces  of  social  intercourse  that  it  prefers  polite  insincerity  to 
blunt  candor,  and  rather  tolerates  polished  hypocrisy  than  plain, 
plodding  truth. 

UPDEGRAFF  was  honest,  stubbornly  honest.  It  was  a  rugged 
honesty  that  did  not  wear  away  by  use,  as  much  of  modern  hon 
esty  does.  His  integrity  was  for  all  times,  all  places  and  occasions, 
such  as  could  ride  out  the  storm  of  temptation  even  with  rasping 
poverty  for  its  companion.  How  much  our  country  needs  that 
type  of  honesty  !  I  say  this  because  it  must  be  apparent  that  in 
our  day  there  are  more  who  are  worshiping  with  Aaron  the  golden 
calf  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  than  are  in  spirit  with  Moses  at  the 
top  worshiping  the  true  God. 

No  man  could  mistake  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF'S  honesty  for  that  too 
prevalent  and  all-pervading  spirit  of  accommodation  which  leaves 
no  margin  between  that  which  is  right  and  that  which  is  purely 
expedient.  Neither  in  his  public  nor  his  private  life  did  he  do  or 
sanction  that  which  tended  to  blur,  much  less  obliterate,  the  line  that 
marks  the  boundary  between  right  and  wrong.  He  was  a  fearless 
champion  of  the  former.  He  never  compromised  with  the  latter. 

The  consequence  to  him  of  profit  or  loss,  of  preferment  or  defeat, 


32      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.    UPDEORAFF. 

formed  no  important  factor  in  shaping  his  conduct  in  the  matter  of 
recognizing  and  discharging  his  just  moral  obligations.  He  knew 
that  "  Duty  is  ours,  results  are  God's." 

When  the  path  of  duty  led  away  from  that  of  profit  or  pleasure 
he  never  hesitated.  With  him  duty  was  supreme.  He  was  a  suc 
cessful  business  man.  He  was  successful  as  a  physician,  successful 
as  an  agriculturist,  successful  as  a  politician  ;  for  in  all  those  call 
ings  he  had  the  elements  which  insure  success,  the  qualities  I  have 
mentioned.  He  always  took  aim;  had  no  confidence  in  luck.  He 
said  success  was  for  him  who  deserved  it.  His  faculties  and  pow 
ers  matured  slowly  but  healthfully.  He  was  stronger  at  fifty 
than  at  forty-five.  He  was  not  of  the  type  of  that  school  of  men 
who  ripen  early  and  then  rot. 

In  religion  he  was  a  "Friend,"  called  in  common  parlance 
a  Quaker.  His  connection  with  that  society  threw  us  much  to 
gether.  His  membership  in  the  society  had  ceased,  but  he  was  still 
in  the  faith.  And  the  injunction  of  that  religion  to  "walk  in  the 
light"  was  ever  present  with  him.  "Walk  in  the  light"  was  the 
injunction  of  our  fathers.  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  did  not  forget  it, 
having  faith  that  his  way  would  be  lighted  by  the  spark  of  divinity 
within  him. 

His  philosophy  taught  him  that  this  life  is  but  the  beginning, 
not  the  end ;  that  after  death  he  would  open  his  eyes  in  another 
sphere  of  existence.  In  that  faith  he  lived ;  in  that  faith  he  died. 

His  thoughts  were  clean  and  his  language  fitly  chosen.  He 
appreciated  the  power  of  right  words.  He  scorned  flattery  and 
despised  flatterers.  He  was  not  slow  to  rebuke  the  fawning  syco 
phancy  that  would  pay  him  compliment  to  win  his  favor.  He  was 
sincere  and  constant  in  his  friendship  and  too  outspoken  in  his 
enmity.  He  was  a  stoic  in  many  things.  He  suifered  the  most 
acute  pain  for  many  months  before  his  death,  but  no  ear  heard  a 
murmur  escape  his  lips.  He  was  of  the  material  of  which  martyrs 
are  made.  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  would  have  walked  to  his  death  with 
calmness  and  without  a  murmur  to  save  a  cause  to  which  he  was 
devoted  as  a  matter  of  conscience. 

He  was  not,  in  the  generally  accepted  sense,  a  brilliant  man.  His 
qualities  of  head  and  heart  were  for  a  lifetime,  not  for  an  occasion. 

The  light  of  his  intellect  was  constant  and  sure.     It  is  said  that 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BUTTERWORTff,  OF  OHIO.  33 

the  world  is  made  better  by  the  constant  efforts  of  a  few  and  the 
fitful  efforts  of  a  few  more.  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  of  the  constant 
few — >the  constant  few  to  whom  the  world  is  so  greatly  indebted 
for  facts  accomplished,  for  labors  done.  He  did  not  know  how  to 
dodge  an  issue  or  shirk  a  responsibility.  He  never  had  occasion 
to  suddenly  remember  that  he  had  an  engagement  which  called 
him  away  from  this  floor  just  as  an  important  vote  was  about  to 
be  taken. 

I  do  not  criticise  those  who  have  such  memories,  since,  of  course, 
it  is  a  mere  matter  of  memory,  and  the  fact  that  it  awakens  at  such 
a  moment  is  the  merest  coincidence.  I  only  note  that  UPDEGRAFF'S 
memory  was  not  of  that  kind.  Do  you  think  I  have  been  too  kind 
to  the  memory  of  my  deceased  friend  ?  If  so,  you  do  not  know 
him  as  I  did — as  one  who  furnished  an  anchor  for  the  society  in 
which  he  lived,  one  wTho  never  drifted  from  the  moorings  of  right, 
whose  soul  was  large  and  a  fit  receptacle  for  pure  and  noble  emo 
tions,  and  unlike  some  in  which  such  sentiments  are  cramped  and 
crippled  by  the  dwarfed  dimensions  of  the  tenement. 

He  was  so  constituted  that  the  thoughts  that  drift  through  vul 
gar  minds  found  no  open  way  to  his.  This  Republic  could  better 
spare  ten  thousand  meteors  that  flash  constantly  across  our  polit 
ical  horizon  than  one  fixed  star.  This  country  in  her  political  sky 
has  a  vast  milky  way  of  twinkling  orbs  of  doubtful  magnitude, 
the-  uncertain  reflection  of  which  tends  rather  to  make  obscure 
than  to  make  clear  the  highway  of  public  duty.  In  the  presence 
of  such  conditions  we  may  well  regret  the  eclipse  by  death  of  a 
single  luminary  whose  light,  if  not  brilliant,  was  certain  and  con 
stant.  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  will  be  missed  more  than  some  who  have 
filled  a  larger  place  in  the  public  eye.  Those  who  study  healthful 
precepts  and  profit  by  wise  example  will  regret  him  whom  we 
mourn.  His  influence  for  good  will  be  felt  when  the  memory  of 
many  of  his  contemporaries  who  deemed  him  plain  and  plodding 
is  forgotten. 

0171 3 


34       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.    UPDEGRAFF. 


Address  of  Mr.  PEELLE,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  Having  been  one  of  the  committee  appointed  to 
attend  the  funeral  of  the  late  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  may  account  some 
what  for  the  propriety  of  my  saying  something  on  this  occasion. 
My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  began  with  this  Congress, 
and  in  that  brief  acquaintance  I  found  him  to  be  a  man  of  decided 
conviction,  possessing  that  courage  which  is  essential  to  enforce  it. 
His  speech  in  this  House  at  the  last  session  on  the  tariff  will  long- 
stand  as  a  model  speech,  as  it  affects  especially  the  agricultural  in 
terests  of  this  country. 

He  was  a  man  of  large  experience,  and,  as  I  take  it,  a  close  ob 
server  and  a  student.  He  must  have  been  both,  as  his  storehouse 
of  knowledge  was  full.  His  speeches,  both  in  this  House  and  else 
where,  entitled  him  to  high  rank  as  an  original  thinker  and  as  an 
analyzer  of  thought,  always  keeping  close  to  those  eternal  truths 
which  make  a  man  formidable  in  debate  and  as  a  speaker,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  poises  a  man  for  good  citizenship. 

He  died  without  complaint  and  with  that  bravery  which  always 
characterizes  the  life  of  a  man  whose  courage  rests  in  the  wisdom 
and  in  the  goodness  of  God. 

As  the  committee  approached  the  little  village  of  his  residence 
we  discovered  the  town  filled  with  citizens,  young  and  old,  while 
every  house  was  draped  in  mourning.  Sir,  are  not  these  higher 
tributes  to  his  memory  and  worth  than  can  possibly  be  paid  by  any 
one  on  the  floor  of  this  House  ?  The  large  Quaker  church  where 
the  funeral  was  held  would  not  hold  the  multitude  which  came  to 
pay  the  last  sad  tribute  of  respect.  To  each  he  was  esteemed  a 
friend,  and  his  large  heart  and  kindly  nature  always  responded  to 
the  wants  of  the  needy  and  the  oppressed.  These  are  jewels  in 
the  crown  of  immortality,  and  well  worthy  the  imitation  of  us  all. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  life  and  public  services  of  our  late  friend 
have  been  so  fully  pictured'by  his  colleagues  and  others  that  I  can 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  PARKER,  OF  NEW  TORE.  35 

add  nothing.     The  poet  Burns  has  given  the  proper  epitaph  on 
our  comrade  and  our  friend,  and  with  his  lines  I  will  conclude : 

An  honest  man  here  lies  at  rest, 
As  e'er  God  with  his  image  blessed  ; 
The  friend  of  man,  the  friend  of  truth, 
The  friend  of  age,  the  guide  of  youth. 
Tew  hearts  like  his  with  virtue  warmed, 
Few  heads  with  knowledge  so  informed. 
If  there's  another  world,  he  lives  in  bliss; 
If  there  is  none,  he  made  the  best  of  this. 


Address  of  Mr.  PARKER,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  It  was  my  fortune  to  first  answer  to  a  roll-call  as 
a  member-elect  of  this  Forty-seventh  Congress  in  that  hall  at  the 
fair  city  of  Cleveland  where  the  meeting  was  held  to  prepare  to  ac 
company  to  its  last  resting-place  the  sacred  body  of  James  A.  Gar- 
field.  Many  of  the  members  now  present  first  met  on  that  day, 
and  none  who  there  met  will  ever  forget  the  impressive  associa 
tions  of  that  solemn  occasion.  All  hearts  were  melted  in  the  con 
sciousness  of  personal  and  national  loss  in  the  presence  of  the  dead 
President  and  of  a  people's  mourning.  Those  who  had  been  op 
ponents  met  as  friends,  and  strangers  met  as  brothers.  Every  man 
realized  that  his  companion  bent  under  the  same  disappointment 
and  unavailing  sorrow.  The  prizes  and  the  honors  of  life  seemed 
but  trifles  indeed  in  the  presence  of  the  universal  affliction  and  of 
the  calm  sleeper  there. 

By  fortunate  chance  my  position  in  the  funeral  procession  fell  in 
companionship  with  the  honorable  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
whose  decease  we  now  mourn.  Of  all  the  vast  throng  no  man 
could  have  been  a  more  sincere,  a  more  unselfish  mourner  than  this 
good,  honest  friend,  who  has  now  himself  passed  over  the  one  broad 
pathway  where  the  foot-prints  of  all  of  us  must  finally  disappear. 

The  conversation  was  upon,  and  only  upon,  the  deceased,  and  many 
an  affectionate  and  touching  tribute  did  he  whom  we  now  mourn 
pay  to  the  great  departed.  He  told  us  of  their  labors  and  their 
services  together ;  of  the  close  and  sympathetic  intercourse  of  years; 


36       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

of  the  simple  grandeur  of  lii.s  great-hearted  leader ;  of  the  affec 
tion  and  absolute  confidence  with  which  the  people  who  had  wit 
nessed  his  every-day  life  had  trusted  that  leader ;  of  the  tender 
ness  of  his  friendship;  of  the  exalted  nobility  of  his  mind. 

And  the  pure  human  goodness  of  the  man  glowed  in  his  face 
and  a  tear  dimmed  his  eye  while  describing  how  the  great  leader, 
then  the  idol  of  his  party,  of  national  fame,  and  conscious  of  his 
almost  irresistible  strength,  in  the  considerate  kindness  of  his  heart 
turned  back  as  he  was  leaving  the  hospitable  home  of  his  old  Quaker 
friend  to  call  for,  and  bid  good-by  to,  and  shake  hands  with  the 
poor  uncultured  colored  domestic. 

He  exhibited  his  sense  of  justice,  for,  physician  as  he  was,  and 
well  aware  of  the  criticisms  visited  upon  his  brothers  of  the  med 
ical  profession  who  had  borne  the  fearful  responsibility  of  seeking 
to  save  the  life  of  his  friend  through  the  long  months  of  agony, 
he  yet  fearlessly  commended  their  faithfulness  and  skill  and  resign 
edly  said  that  they  had  done  all  that  they  could  do  and  all  that 
men  had  a  right  to  expect. 

From  the  acquaintance  thus  formed,  and  because  of  the  qualities 
and  characteristics  he  disclosed,  and  by  reason  of  the  frank,  genial, 
and  kindly  nature  of  the  man,  I  came  to  feel  better  acquainted 
with  the  deceased  than  with  almost  any  other  member  of  the  House 
I  had  not  previously  known.  More  than  once  I  had  occasion  to 
be  grateful  to  him  for  a  good  word  and  a  kind  act.  He  was  the 
very  spirit  of  kindness  and  good-will.  He  was  so  plainly  and 
naturally  honorable  that  no  one  ever  thought  of  it  as  possible  for 
him  to  be  otherwise. 

He  was  a  plain  man,  unassuming,  but  always  clearly  seeing  and 
doing  his  duty.  He  was  especially  watchful  of  agricultural  legis 
lation  and  ready  to  lead  or  follow  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  farm 
ing  interest.  He  was  faithful  and  attentive,  always  in  his  place  in 
the  House,  doing  his  whole  duty  intelligently,  but  without  ostenta 
tion  or  self-seeking.  He  was  a  man  of  quick  judgment  and  strong 
sense,  and  upon  adequate  occasion  an  eloquent  speaker.  He  in 
stinctively  touched  the  hearts  of  the  common  people,  for  he  knew 
them,  he  was  from  and  of  them.  His  political  addresses  delivered 
in  the  State  of  New  York  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  TOWNSEND,  OF  OHIO.  37 

Knowing  this  man  as  one  of  pure  and  blameless  life,  honest  and 
true,  faithful  and  without  guile,  I  claim  the  privilege  to-day  of 
joining  those  who  were  his  neighbors  and  long-time  associates  in 
doing  honor  to  his  memory,  and  beg  to  place  reverently  upon  his 
coffin  my  sprig  of  northern  evergreen. 


Address  of  Mr.  TOWNSEND,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  as  we  stand  by  the  casket  in  which  lie  the  remains 
of  a  loved  friend  we  cannot  but  contemplate  the  uncertainty  of  hu 
man  life  and  the  certainty  of  death.  We  are  reminded  of  the  des 
tiny  that  awaits  us  all.  Without  any  effort  of  our  own  there  arises 
in  the  breast  of  every  beholder  one  question:  "  What  is  death  ?" 
It  is  the  unsearchable  mystery  which  every  man,  from  the  dawn 
ing  of  the  world  to  the  present  day,  has  tried  in  vain  to  penetrate. 
This  feeling  of  the  infinite  and  dark  beyond  caused  the  ancients  to 
speculate  upon  the  life  of  man  on  earth  compared  with  the  uncer 
tain  time  beyond.  "  Life  appears  for  a  while,  but  what/7  ask 
they,  "  is  the  time  which  comes  after,  the  time  which  was  before." 

Such  shadows  of  human  existence  scarcely  darkened  the  path 
way  of  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF.  "  Life  is  real,  life  is  earn 
est,'7  says  Longfellow,  and  so  it  was  interpreted  by  our  dead  friend. 
He  strove  to  live  well,  not  to  live  long. 

Of  the  events  of  that  busy  life  he  lived  I  need  not  speak.  They 
have  been  more  fitly  pictured  by  those  who  have  preceded  me.  I 
can  only  speak  of  a  few  of  the  noble  qualities  of  his  character  as 
they  appeared  to  me  during  a  long  personal  acquaintance.  One  of 
the  most  noticeable  of  his  traits  was  his  ambition.  His  ambition, 
however,  was  an  unselfish  one.  He  sought  position  and  power 
that  he  might  do  good  and  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellowman. 

He  was  a  man  of  robust  mental  and  physical  energy,  capable  of 
long-continued  application  to  any  task  to  which  he  set  himself. 
So  untiring  was  his  energy  that  he  seldom  failed  to  attain  the  ob 
ject  for  which  he  sought.  No  labor  discouraged  him,  no  contin 
gency  appalled  him,  no  disadvantage  disheartened  him,  no  defeat 


38      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

depressed  him.  Possessed  of  indomitable  will,  he  had  courage 
equal  to  his  convictions,  and  was  ready  to  express  them  upon  all 
proper  occasions.  Scrupulously  honest,  he  was  conscientiously  de 
voted  to  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  Whatever  he  undertook  to 
do  he  did  well. 

He  was  well  educated  and  thoroughly  read  on  all  subjects  He 
had  enjoyed  unusual  advantages  in  preparation  for  his  career  as  a 
physician,  and  was  a  successful  practitioner.  But  not  alone  for 
pecuniary  reward  did  he  labor.  His  poorest  neighbor  could  ex 
pect  the  most  patient  and  careful  treatment  without  money  and 
without  price.  Agriculture  was  his  favorite  pursuit,  and  to  its 
service  he  devoted  many  pleasant  hours,  looking  upon  it  as  a  branch 
of  science  contributing  most  to  the  immediate  wants  of  man. 

His  Congressional  career,  too,  was  one  characterized  by  deep  de 
votion  to  duly.  He  was  always  present  in  his  seat,  and  few  votes 
are  to  be  found  in  the  records  while  a  member  of  this  body  where 
his  name  was  not  recorded  upon  the  one  side  or  the  other  of  a 
question.  In  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  as  a  member  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Invalid  Pensions,  he  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
labor  to  the  investigation  of  claims  referred  to  him,  and  many  a 
poor  and  maimed  soldier  and  many  a  veteran's  widow  and  orphan 
children  are  indebted  to  him  for  the  relief  they  now  enjoy.  While 
painstaking  and  upright  in  these  investigations,  his  sympathy  for 
the  soldiers  inclined  him  to  the  side  of  the  applicant  for  the  pension. 
His  professional  knowledge  of  diseases  and  medicine  made  him  a 
most  valuable  member  of  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Public 
Health. 

His  speech  upon  the  tariif  last  session  from  the  stand-point  of 
the  farmer  was  able,  exhaustive,  and  original,  and  gained  for  him 
a  wide  reputation  for  ability.  It  clid  much  to  place  before  the 
formers  of  the  country  that  greatly  misunderstood  subject  in  its 
true  relations -to  agriculture.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  practical 
farmer  and  a  loyal  adherent  to  the  principles  of  protection.  His 
was  one  of  the  very  best  tarrff  speeches  made,  for  the  reason  that 
it  was  wholly  original  in  its  conception. 

In  his  treatment  of  his  fellow-members  he  was  kindly,  courte 
ous,  and  commanded  their  confidence  and  respect.  What  a  sunny 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  TOWNSEND,  OF  OHIO.  39 

nature  was  his!  Though  he  suffered  from  a  fatal  malady,  be  bore 
it  with  heroic  courage  and  without  complaint.  The  same  even 
temperament  characterized  his  demeanor;  frank,  open-hearted,  there 
was  that  in  his  countenance  which  harbored  not  deceit. 

In  the  undemonstrative  teachings  of  the  Quaker  belief  he  found 
the  rule  and  guide  of  his  religious  life;  yet  there  was  the  most 
liberal  toleration  of  the  views  of  others.  He  could  truly  say  that 
"  none  of  his  fellow-citizens  were  compelled  through  any  act  of  his 
to  put  on  a  mourning-robe." 

In  the  domestic  circle  he  found  a  source  of  great  comfort.  He 
was  the  father  of  five  children,  all  of  whom  were  tenderly  raised 
and  well  educated,  and  he  lived  to  see  his  family  useful  and  hon 
ored  citizens. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  reached  the  summit  of  his  ambition,  and  after 
an  active  and  eventful  life  and  one  of  great  usefulness,  crowned 
with  more  success  than  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  man,  weary  and 
exhausted,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends,  almost  in  sight 
of  the  farm  where  he  passed  so  many  happy  years  of  his  life,  his 
soul  obeyed  the  summons ;  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties,  with 
words  of  cheer  and  comfort  to  sorrowing  friends,  he  calmly  passed 
away.  Time  will  roll  his  ceaseless  course,  the  moments  will  hurry 
by  like  the  shadows  of  a  passing  cloud,  generations  will  come  and 
go,  but  the  lessons  taught  in  the  life  of  JONATHAN  T.  UPDE 
GRAFF  will  endure  for  all  time. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  question  is  upon  the  adoption  of  the  reso 
lutions  which  have  been  submitted. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  and  the  House*ad- 
journed. 


.  PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  SENATE 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

December  5,  1882. 

A  message  from  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  Mr.  McPher- 
son,  its  Clerk,  communicated  to  the  Senate  the  intelligence  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  WILLIAM  M.  LOWE,  late  a  member  of  the  House 
from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  of  Mr.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
late  a  member  of  the  House  from  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  transmitted 
the  resolutions  of  the  House  thereon. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  Mr.  President,  I  ask  the  Chair  to  lay  before 
the  Senate  the  resolutions  just  communicated  from  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER.  The  Chair  lays  before  the  Senate 
resolutions  from  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  will  be  read. 

The  Acting  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  h#s  heard  with  sincere  regret  the  announcement 
of  the  death,  during  the  late  recess,  of  Hon.  WILLIAM  M.  LOWE,  a  Eeprcsent- 
tative  from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  of  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDKGRAFF,  a 
Representative  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Hesolccd,  That  the  Clerk  communicate  the  foregoing  resolution  to  the  Senate. 

Kesoh'ed,  That  as  a  mark  of  lespect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased  the 
House  do  now  adjourn. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  Mr.  President,  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  these  deceased  Representatives,  I  move  that  the  Senate 
do  nt>w  adjourn. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to ;  and  (at  1  o'clock  and  58  minutes  p. 
m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THP;  UNITED  STATES, 

February  6,  1883. 

A  message  from  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  Mr.  McPher- 
son,  its   Clerk,  transmited  to  the  Senate  the  resolutions  adopted 
40 


A  DDK  ESS  OF  MR.  SHERMAN,  OF  OHIO.          41 

by  that  body  concerning  the  death  of  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
late  a  member  of  the  House  from  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  ROBERT 
M.  A.  HAWK,  late  a  member  of  the  House  from  the  State  of  Illi 
nois. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  Chair  lays  before  the  Senate 
resolutions  from  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  Acting  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  has  received  with  profound 
sorrow  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF, 
late  a  Representative  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Resolved,  That  the  business  of  the  House  be  now  suspended  that  suitable 
honors  may  be  paid  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased. 

Resolved,  That  the  Clerk  of  this  House  do  communicate  these  resolutions 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  SHERMAN.  Mr.  President,  I  submit  resolutions  and  ask  that 
they  be  read. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  resolutions  will  be  read. 
The  Acting  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  profound  sorrow  the  announce 
ment  of  the  death  of  Hon.  JONATHAN  T.  UPDEGRAFF,  late  a  Representative 
from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

Resolved,  That  the  business  of  the  Senate  be  suspended  in  order  that  the 
friends  of  the  deceased  have  opportunity  to  pay  iittiug  tributes  to  his  public 
and  private  virtues. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  trtiusmit  a  copy  of  these  proceedings  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased. 


Address  of  Mr.  SHERMAN,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  The  message  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
conveying  to  us  the  formal  notice  of  the  death  of  JONATHAN  T. 
UPDEGRAFF,  late  member  of  that  House  from  the  State  of  Ohio, 
imposes  upon  .me  the  duty  of  adding  a  brief  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  a  colleague  who  had  been  thrice  elected  to  represent  in  Con 
gress  the  people  of  the  district  in  which  he  was  born,  and  among 
whom  he  had  spent  his  entire  life. 

It  is  not  marely  to  perform  this  formal  duty  to  a  colleague  that  I 


42       LIFE  AND  CHAEACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   VPDEGRAFF. 

now  address  you,  but  also  to  express  my  profound  sorrow  for  the 
loss  of  a  personal  friend  whom  I  have  known  for  many  years  in 
private  life,  and  to  whom  I  was  deeply  indebted  for  the  highest 
marks  of  kindness,  courtesy,  and  support. 

He  died  at  his  home  at  Mount  Pleasant,  in  the  county  of  Jeffer 
son,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  neighbors, 
two  days  before  we  assembled  at  the  present  session  of  Congress, 
in  the  full  maturity  of  his  mental  powers,  and  when  he  was 
cheered  by  success  in  an  eagerly  contested  political  canvass. 

He  had  hoped  to  meet  here  with  us.  Though  the  disease  of 
which  he  died  was  that  enemy  of  human  life  so  fatal  in  our  day  to 
vigorous  manhood,  yet  during  his  last  illness  he  was  hopeful  and 
confident  that  his  strong  constitution  would  enable  him  to  live  to 
carry  out  cherished  maasures  of  public  policy  to  which  he  was 
committed.  But  the  fatal  journey  was  not  to  be  avoided,  and  all 
we  can  do  is  to  mark  the  departure  of  a  colleague  and*  a  friend 
with  a  few  kindly  words  that  will  soon  be  said  for  each  of  us  as 
we  yield  in  our  turn. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF'S  life  was  tranquil,  useful,  and  honorable. 
He  was  born  of  a  highly  respected  Quaker  family  of  Virginia,  a 
member  of  which,  in  the  early  history  of  Ohio,  settled  a  few  miles 
from  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  River,  then  the  outer  verge  of  the 
white  settlements.  His  grandfather  was  a  member  of  the  conven 
tion  which  framed  the  first  constitution  of  Ohio.  His  kindred 
were  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  he  was  reared,  lived, 
and  died  a  member  of  that  society.  His  early  life  was  spent  on 
the  farm  where  he  was  born.  But  he  had  the  advantage  of  a  good 
education  in  the  common  schools  and  at  Franklin  College  in  that 
State.  He  studied  medicine  and  graduated  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  afterward  at  medical  schools  at  Edinburg  and 
Paris. 

He  made  a  protracted  journey  through  Europe,  Egypt,  and  the 
Holy  Land.  Afterward  he  practiced  his  profession  for  several 
years,  but  devoted  his  leisure  time  and  his  energy  and  capital  to 
agricultural  pursuits,  which  gratified  more  than  any  other  his 
natural  tastes  and  inclinations.  He  manifested  his  love  for  the 
country  rather  than  the  city,  for  the  cultivation  of  the  farm  rather 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  SHERMAX,  OF  OHIO.          43 

than  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  his  daily  life,  in  his  studies, 
and  in  his  conversation.  Few  men  were  better  informed  on  the 
subject  and  history  of  rural  life  than  he.  He  always  insisted  that 
the  arts  of  husbandry  had  been  more  carefully  studied  and  prac 
ticed  among  the  ancient  nations  than  in  later  times.  He  yielded 
only  to  our  o\vn  age  superiority  in  labor-saving  mechanical 
devices,  which  he  contended  had  changed  for  the  worse  the  moral 
tendency  of  country  life.  He  supported  his  theory  by  many  in 
teresting  descriptions  of  Judean  and  Egyptian  farming.  With 
hi  111  Job  was  the  great  farmer,  not  only  as  the  owner  of  vast 
herds  and  flocks,  but  as  the  farmer  who  employed  five  hundred 
yoke  of  oxen  in  plowing,  and  "a  very  great  husbandry."  The 
Egyptians  exceeded  all  nations  of  modern  times  in  the  extent  and 
perfection  of  the  tillage  of  the  soil,  by  which  they  were  able  to 
support  a  vast  population  and  to  send  food  supplies  to  surrounding 
nations;  thus  by  gainful  industry  obtaining  the  means  of  building 
the  monuments  which  to  our  day  excite  the  wonder  of  mankind. 

He  was  fond  of  quoting  the  poets  and  statesmen  of  Rome  in 
honor  of  the  dignity  of  the  first  and  noblest  employment  of  man. 
He  looked  upon  the  devices  which  in  our  day  enable  owners  of 
land  by  mechanical  implements  to  dispense  with  the  labor  of  thou 
sands  of  husbandmen  as  of  doubtful  benefit,  tending  to  concentrate 
capital  in  the  hands  of  the  few  and  deepening  the  poverty  of  the 
poor  by  .lessening  their  employment. 

Though  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  loved  best  the  vocation  of  a  farmer, 
he  practiced  his  profession  in  his  neighborhood,  and  during  a  part 
of  the  late  war  served  as  a  surgeon  in  the  Union  Army,  and  bore 
a  high  reputation  as  a  skillful  and  successful  physician.  He  has 
always,  since  I  have  known  him,  taken  an  active  part  in  political 
affairs  as  a  Republican,  and  has  frequently  engaged  in  political  dis 
cussions.  From  his  boyhood,  in  harmony  with  the  Quaker  ideas 
of  his  ancestors,  he  was  an  earnest  opponent  of  slavery,  a  member 
of  the  Freesoil  party,  and  cordially  sympathized  with  the  most  ad 
vanced  views  in  opposition  to  slavery.  He  has  always  been  iden 
tified  witli  the  temperance  cause.  In  life  and  speech  he  did  his 
utmost  to  check  the  evils  of  intemperance  and  to  restrain  the  traffic 
in  intoxicating  liquors,  and  was  a  member  of  various  temperance 


44       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.    UPDEGRAFF. 

organizations.  As  a  speaker  he  was  universally  kind  and  cour 
teous,  and  illustrated  his  argument  with  quaint  humor.  Neither 
pretending  to  be  an  orator,  or  using  the  arts  of  an  orator,  he  was 
an  interesting  speaker,  and  as  such  was  much  sought  for  in  the 
public  canvasses  in  several  States.  He  served  as  a  Presidential 
elector,  and  voted  for  General  Grant,  in  1872.  He  was  an  influ 
ential  member  of  the  senate  of  Ohio  in  the  two  following  years. 
He  took  an  active  part  in  the  campaign  of  1875,  Avhen  President 
Hayes  was  elected  governor  of  Ohio,  and  was  a  delegate  to  the 
national  convention  in  1876  which  nominated  President  Hayes. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  first  elected  to  Congress  in  October,  1878. 
He  was  re-elected  in  1880  and  1882.  When  he  entered  Congress 
he  was  in  apparently  robust  health,  large,  strong,  full  chested, 
and  vigorous  botli  in  mind  and  action.  The  party  to  which  he 
belonged  was  then  in  a  minority  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
With  the  wise  caution  and  modesty  of  a  new  member  he  took  but 
little  part  in  the  debates  of  that  session.  He,  however,  made  one 
speech  on  the  bill  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission 
on  the  subject  of  the  alcoholic  liquor  traffic,  which  illustrates  the 
strong  moral  convictions  which  governed  him  in  all  matters  of 
legislation. 

If  a  measure  was  right,  or  tended  to  promote  morality,  good 
order,  or  temperance,  he  was  sure  lo  be  for  it,  whatever  obstacles 
stood  in  the  way.  He  always  acted  upon  the  saying  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  that  "  it  is  the  duty  of  government  to  make  it  as  hard  as 
possible  for  a  man  to  go  wrong,  and  as  easy  as  possible  for  him  to 
go  right."  His  plea  for  temperance  was  not  affected  in  the  least  by 
doubts  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  subject  or  the  resulting 
dangers  of  extreme  measures.  It  was  enough  to  enlist  his  earnest 
support  for  him  to  believe  that  the  measure,  so  far  as  it  could  be 
executed,  tended  to  banish  from  the  state  that  which  is  fitted  only 
to  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  people.  The  same  moral  tone  is  ob 
served  in  everything  that  was  said  by  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  while  a 
member  of  Congress,  and  it  was  shown  without  cant,  pretension,  or 
reproof  to  those  who  differed  from  him.  In  his  conduct  also  he 
observed  the  same  moral  standard  that  he  sought  to  enforce  by 
legislation. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SHERMAN,  OF  OHIO.  45 

He  took  an  active  part  in  securing  liberal  pensions  for  the  sol 
diers  in  the  Union  Army,  and  stated  strongly  their  claims  upon  the 
Government ;  for  without  their  success  "  we  should  to-day  have  no 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  no  national  Treasury,  no  nation." 
The  speech  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  that  more  than  any  other  states 
his  convictions  is  that  made  by  him  in  February,  1881,  on  the  bill 
for  the  creation  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  It  is  a  strong 
and  earnest  plea  for  a  national  recognition  of  that  great  industry. 
He  was  not  contented  with  quoting  the  favorable  opinions  of  Wash 
ington  and  others,  but  demonstrated  that  such  a  department  ought 
to  be  and  could  be  made  a  cheap  instrument  of  immense  national 
benefits.  He  said  : 

The  social  and  intellectual  condition  of  the  rural  population  of  any  country 
is  no  uncertain  measure  of  its  high  civilization  and  progress.  The  thought 
ful  statesmen  of  Europe  now  admit  that  our  system  of  land-holding  is  one  of 
the  great  sources  of  enterprise  and  thrift,  as  well  as  of  popular  content,  and 
gives  to  industry  the  chance  of  permanent  reward,  and  to  lahor  the  dignity 
of  freedom.  Popular  education  brings  general  intelligence.  Industry,  energy, 
and  physical  health  combine  to  produce  the  elements  of  character  which 
make  good  citizens  and  successful  men.  Loving  their  homes,  the  love  of 
country  is  easier  and  stronger.  Schlegel,  in  his  Philosophy  of  History,  says  : 
"  Perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  many  of  the  qualities  which  fitted 
thoEomans  for  conquering  the  world  and  perfecting  their  so  celebrated  juris 
prudence  were  acquired,  or  at  least  nourished  and  matured,  by  the  skill, 
foresight,  and  persevering  industry  so  needful  for  the  intelligent  and  success 
ful  cultivation  of  the  soil."  And  in  this  country,  since  the  dawn  of  the  Revo 
lution,  when  at  Concord  Bridge — 

"The  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world," 

this  hardy  and  patriotic  class  has  been,  in  every  conflict,  a  chief  source  of 
the  nation's  triumph,  as  it  is  to-day  a  large  element  of  the  nation's  strength. 

During  the  last  session  of  Congress  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  made  a 
speech  of  remarkable  ability  upon  the  policy  of  protective  duties 
as  they  affected  the  farmer.  It  attracted  attention  at  the  time,  and 
may  be  read  with  benefit  now  as  presenting  the  strongest  statement 
of  the  benefit  of  this  policy  to  the  farmers  of  every  part  of  the 
country.  This  was  the  last  speech  made  by  him  in  Congress,  and 
it  is  safe  to  say  no  other  made  during  that  able  debate  is  more 
marked  with  intelligence  and  ability.  The  two  speeches  referred 
to,  with  short  remarks  made  on  pensions,  education,  and  kindred 


46       LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.   UPDEGRAFF. 

topics,  indicate  the  bent  of  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF'S  mind.  He  had 
charity  for  all.  All  he  did  and  all  he  said  was  to  relieve,  improve, 
or  advance  some  portion  of  mankind.  No  unkind  ness  marked  his 
speech;  no  bitterness  could  be  distilled  in  his  brain,  but  only  good 
will  and  charity — Quaker  virtues  which  he  inherited  and  honestly 
maintained. 

Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  was  nominated  last  summer  for  his  third  term. 
During  the  canvass  it  became  apparent  to  his  friends  that  his  physi 
cal  strength  was  passing  away.  His  usual  buoyancy  and  energy 
were  gone  ;  the  palid  hue  of  decay  was  on  his  countenance.  Still 
he  was  hopeful,  and  when  his  friends  believed  and  announced  that 
his  death  was  sure  and  imminent  he  believed  that  he  would  recover. 
On  the  day  after  his  election  his  death  was  prematurely  announced, 
but  he  rallied  and  improved.  Thus  for  six  weeks  he  lingered  on 
the  verge  of  the  great  change  of  life  to  death,  suffering  greatly  but 
complaining  not,  carefully  arranging  his  worldly  affairs,  with  wife 
and  children  around  him,  a  whole  community  sorrowing.  Then, 
fully  conscious  of  his  condition,  earthly  hope  failed  and  life  ended. 
While  we  were  journeying  hither  he  journeyed  where  no  guide  can 
aid  him  except  that  revealed  to  us  in  the  Christian's  hope. 

We  can  say  of  him  that  he  filled  honorably  all  the  obligations 
that  he  undertook  in  life,  to  father,  mother,  wife,  and  children,  to 
those  who  confided  in  him  as  a  physician,  and  to  friends,  whom  lie 
never  betrayed.  To  constituents  who  trusted  to  him  political  power 
he  returned  duty  honestly  performed.  I  believe  also  he  discharged 
that  higher  duty  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe  which  rests 
upon  all  of  mortal  mold.  He  did  what  he  could  by  example  to 
benefit  those  who  survive  him.  We  are  atoms  in  a  moving  pano 
rama,  changing,  oh,  how  rapidly.  If  it  can  be  truthfully  said  of 
any  man  he  has  done  in  his  life  more  good  than  evil,  then  is  the 
world  better  for  his  having  lived.  Dr.  UPDEGRAFF  may  not  have 
made  so  conspicuous  a  mark  upon  our  time  as  some  others,  yet  all 
that  he  did  do  was  useful,  honorable,  and  good. 


ADDRESS  OP  MR.  PEXDLETOX,  OF  OHIO.  47 


Address  of  Mr.  PENDLETON,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  My  colleague  [Mr.  Sherman]  has  fittingly  de 
scribed  the  useful  and  honorable  career  of  Mr.  UPDEGRAFF  in  his 
profession,  in  the  Army,  on  the  farm,  in  the  political  contests  of  his 
native  State.  He  had  the  advantage  of  close  personal  association 
and  warm  and  long-sustained  friendship.  I  knew  Mr.  UPDEGRAFF 
only  by  reputation  until  I  met  him  here  at  the  extra  session  of  Con 
gress  in  1879.  He  was  then  for  the  first  time  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

Afterward  my  intercourse  with  him  was  not  intimate  or  daily ; 
but  it  was  enough  to  enable  me  to  perceive  and  to  appreciate 
those  qualities  of  mind  and  character  which  made  his  life  useful 
and  worthy  in  all  the  various  relations  to  which  my  colleague 
has  alluded.  He  was  affable  in  temper,  genial  in  manners, 
firm  in  his  convictions,  frank  in  their  expression,  temperate  in  their 
assertion,  tolerant  of  all  differences.  He  was  fast  in  his  friendships, 
just  in  his  antagonisms,  an  agreeable  companion,  an  educated,  cul 
tivated  gentleman. 

A  touching  letter,  written  from  his  bed  of  death  to  his  late  op 
ponent  in  his  last  heated  political  contest,  in  response  to  solicitous 
inquiry  as  to  his  health  did  equal  honor  to  both. 

When  I  last  saw  him  he  seemed  in  perfect  health  ;  but  even  then 
the  fatal  disease  was  secretly  consuming  his  vital  powers.  In  the  hour 
of  his  greatest  political  triumph  he  obeyed  the  command  of  a  victor 
stronger  than  he,  and  trod  the  mysterious  pathways  which,  through 
the  portals  of  the  tomb,  lead  to  the  "  undiscovered  country." 

Mr.  President,  men  who  achieve  commanding  influence  and 
stamp  the  character  of  the  age  in  which  they  live  are  the  product 
of  the  centuries.  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  order  of 
advancing  society,  the  progression  of  our  race,  the  attainment  of  the 
better  and  the  purer  to  which  the  insatiable  longings  of  the  human 
soul  forever  aspire,  are  not  more  promoted  by  the  active,  earnest, 


48      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JONATHAN  T.    VPDEGRAFF. 

faithful, modest  lives  of  those  who  in  less  conspicuous  station  always 
to  their  own  selves  are  true. 

Compute  the  chances, 

And  deem  there's  ne'er  a  one  in  dangerous  times, 
Who  wins  the  race  of  glory,  but  than  him 
A  thousand  men  more  gloriously  endowed 
Have  fallen  upon  the  course  ;  a  thousand  others 
Have  had  their  fortunes  foundered  by  a  chance 
Whilst  lighter  barks  pushed  past  them  ;  to  whom  add 
A  smaller  tally  of  the  singular  few 
Who  gifted  with  predominating  powers, 
Bear  yet  a  temperate  will  and  keep  the  peace, 
The  world  knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  teinpore.  The  question  is  on  the  adoption 
of  the  resolution  presented  by  the  Senator  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Sher 
man]. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously,  and  the  Senate  ad 
journed. 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


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